Hope rises with Tigray peace deal in Ethiopia but terror campaign in Oromia continues

Hopes for an end to one of the world’s bloodiest contemporary conflicts have risen with an agreement concluded last Wednesday between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to end their two-year-long civil war. The agreement mediated by the African Union was signed in South Africa.

The war has devasted the northern Tigray region, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving millions homeless. According to religious liberty analyst Elizabeth Kendal, the Tigray forces who were encircled, depleted and without supply due to an Ethiopian blockade which cut the region off from communication and aid had little choice but to surrender.

The deal did not include neighbouring Eritrea, whose troops have fought alongside the Ethiopian government in the war, and have been accused of atrocities. Some observers have criticised the deal for failing to call on Eritrean forces to leave. The people of Ethiopia’s Amhara region, who have been fighting with the Ethiopian government in the war and have a border dispute with Tigray, were also left out of the peace talks.

The peace deal, which now is in the sensitive implementation phase, includes a comprehensive disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme for the TPLF.

Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs USA says, the involvement of Eritrea, whose government harshly persecutes Christians, has been a big concern.

“Pray the peace deal will hold. Ask God to strengthen Christians in the Tigray region. Nettleton says.

Meanwhile Elizabeth Kendal reports that the Oromo Liberation Army continues to wage terror across Oromia Region’s mostly Christian north and west, targeting the Amhara minority. Numerous students, local officials and church leaders are currently being held hostage. In North Shewa Zone, security is so bad that churches have ceased services. Nine deacons abducted from a prayer meeting on October 22 remain missing, as do members of a church council abducted around the same time. She calls for prayer for God’s intervention in the crisis.

In her latest prayer bulletin, Kendall asks believers to pray that God will:

• intervene to sustain, protect and ultimately liberate the youths, officials and Christian leaders currently held hostage by the Oromo Liberation Army; Lord have mercy!
• grace Prime Minister Abiy and the entire Ethiopian government with wisdom, boldness and resolve to defeat the terrorist Oromo Liberation Army; may every person impacted by OLA terror seek and find their shelter in the Lord.
• sustain and strengthen Prime Minister Abiy and the entire Ethiopian government as they work to implement the Agreement made with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front; may the Holy Spirit, ‘the Lord and giver of life’, soften hearts and direct minds in favour of peace, reconciliation and Ethiopian unity – for the sake of Ethiopia’s mission-focused Church and every lost and needy soul who needs her, be they Ethiopian or otherwise.
• intervene to energise, guide and aid the process of constitutional reform and peace-making for the benefit of Ethiopia and the whole Horn of Africa. Lord have mercy!

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