Ethiopian PM announces start date of peace talks with rebel group

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced on Sunday that his government will begin peace talks with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a paramilitary group, on Tuesday. 

The rebel group has their stronghold near the capital Addis Ababa, in the populous Oromia region.

"The peace negotiation that will be held with (the Oromo Liberation Army) will start the day after tomorrow in Tanzania," Abiy announced, “the Ethiopian government and people will need this negotiation very much.”

"I call upon everybody to play (their) part,” Abiy said at an assembly of parties that participated in the Tigray peace process.

The OLA was formally part of a group called the Oromo Liberation Front, which fought against the government. In 2018, the umbrella group mostly agreed to stop fighting. However, the OLA didn't agree to stop and continued to fight the federal government.

Both the OLA and the Ethiopian government blame each other for different attacks in the Oromia region. The OLA also made an alliance with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in 2021, even though they used to be enemies.

This move is part of Abiy Ahmed’s decision to disband paramilitary groups “for the sake of unity” after a brutal period of war. He wants regional militias to be dissolved and integrated into official entities.

Tigray, the northernmost region of Ethiopia, has been at the center of a civil war that began in 2020. Belligerent parties included regional militias, the federal government, and the Eritrean military. A peace deal was reached in 2022, but the conflict has attracted the concern of humanitarian groups and external actors. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asserted that "ethnic cleansing" was committed in the region, and all of the parties to the conflict have been accused of possible war crimes by UN investigators. However, Ahmed maintains that a UN-backed probe into abuses would undermine the peace process.