The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni has met with Ethiopia’s foreign minister to discuss the growing conflict in the Tigray region, urging negotiations between warring parties.
Museveni met with Demeke Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, to discuss the almost two-week old conflict in the dissident northern region of Tigray.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced November 4 he had ordered military operations in Tigray in a dramatic escalation of a long-running feud with the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Hundreds have died and thousands have fled the country amid air strikes and heavy fighting that observer’s fear could lead to a protracted civil war.
“A war in Ethiopia would give the entire continent a bad image,” Museveni wrote on Twitter after the meeting in the northern town of Gulu. The message as we learned, was later deleted.
“There should be negotiations and the conflict stopped, lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy.”
Ethiopia’s Prime Minster and Nobel Peace laureate Abiy Ahmed while trying to avoid civilians being killed warned people in Tigray to avoid holding gatherings as he has ordered air strikes to destroy the military arsenal of the regional government. He wants to dislodge it from power after accusing it of being illegally in office and of violently taking control of a federal military base near Mekelle, charges the Tigray government denies.
