By: Our staff reporter
Addis Ababa (Ethiopia Today), April 21, 2023: In line with the Pretoria Peace Agreement, the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) handed the first round of combat weapons gathered in a place called Dengolat over to the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) State media reports.
The disarmament of the former’s militants is underway. According to the agreement, the ENDF received heavy weapons in the first round of the disarmament process and air force weapons in the second round.
Brigadier General Derbe Mekuria, Deputy Commissioner of the National Rehabilitation Commission, who discussed the disarmament process with leaders of the Tigray Interim Administration last week, said that from this week until April 24, the group’s equipment will be handed over.
The first round of group weapons was handed over in the presence of representatives of the defense forces and the TPLF. furhermore In the next few days, the group’s equipment in different camps will be handed over.
Colonel Gudeta Ofka, a representative of the ENDF who was present at the scene, announced that they had taken over several combat weapons, including mortars. For his take on the issue, TPLF’s representative, Mulugeta Gebre Christos, stated that according to the truce, TPLF combatants are disbanding and handing over their weapons to the ENDF.
Both representatives expressed conviction that the disarmament process is going well and that the government and the TPLF are taking positive steps toward the implementation of the peace agreement. “The implementation of the truce is promising to bring lasting peace to the country,” they remarked.
