He’s an exclusive guest on RFI this morning. Debretsion Gebremichael was the head of the Tigrayan authority during the civil war that, from 2020 to 2022, pitted Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia, against the federal government in Addis Ababa, allied with neighboring Eritrea and the Ethiopian regions of Amhara and others. It was a bloody civil war. The African Union spoke of around 600,000 deaths. Many observers also suspect genocide. The Pretoria Peace Agreement ended the conflict in November 2022. But the challenges are immense. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have still not returned. Tigray is still partially occupied. Debretsion Gebremichael is now the leader of the TPLF, the main party in Tigray. He speaks to our special correspondent.
RFI: Almost two years after the peace agreement, where is its implementation? Progress seems very slow.
Debretsion Gebremichael: Yes. This agreement was signed almost two years ago. Implementation is very slow…
At first, there was progress. Public services had been restarted. Communications, electricity, transportation, government funding. Everyone was happy. We were moving forward. And most importantly, there was no more fighting. Even if peace hadn’t come to all of Tigray, most of the territory was under our government’s control… Read more