The truce reached between Ethiopia's warring parties marks an "encouraging and bold step" towards peace, the UN rights chief said Thursday, demanding reparations for the brutal conflict's many victims.

Volker Turk, who took over as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights two weeks ago, said he hoped the breakthrough agreement signed Wednesday would help end the "conflict that has claimed many lives, caused widespread displacement and untold suffering and ruin".

He particularly welcomed that the deal between the federal government and Tigrayan regional authorities, announced almost exactly two years to the day since the war erupted on November 4, 2020, strongly emphasised human rights.

In a statement, he highlighted that it condemned "sexual and gender-based violence, violence against children, girls, women, and older people" and also its "commitment to implement a comprehensive national transitional justice policy".

"Consultation with all relevant stakeholders, including victims and civil society, will be crucial in the design of this policy," he said.

Turk stressed in particular that it was essential to "ensure accountability for gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law".

"Effective remedies and adequate reparation will be key for victims, and to foster reconciliation and national healing."

The UN rights chief also stressed the need to keep a keen focus on the situation on the ground to avert further abuses.

"Regular monitoring and reporting are crucial to prevent human rights violations and abuses in all areas affected by hostilities."

The UN Human Rights Committee, which on Thursday presented conclusions following a recent review of Ethiopia's record, also hailed the truce.

Committee vice chair Christopher Arif Bulkan told reporters he hoped it would lead to a "considerable improvement" in Ethiopia's dire rights situation.

The committee of independent experts, which reviewed Ethiopia's record last month, decried in its conclusions the "serious and widespread human rights violations against civilians by all parties to the conflict in Tigray".

It called on Ethiopia to investigate all alleged violations, to hold perpetrators accountable and ensure victims "receive full reparations".

The committee report also urged Ethiopia "to protect freedom of expression", pointing to harassment, attacks, arbitrary arrests and detention of dissidents, as well as the use of criminal provisions "to silence dissent".

Ethiopia's Abiy says govt got '100 percent' in peace deal
Addis Ababa (AFP) Nov 3, 2022 - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Thursday that his government had secured "100 percent" of what it sought in negotiations with Tigrayan rebels that yielded a breakthrough agreement to end two years of war.

The deal, unveiled Wednesday after little over a week of negotiations, was hailed by the UN, the United States and others as a crucial first step towards ending the bloodshed.

Speaking before a crowd of supporters in the town of Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia, Abiy said the government had scored a victory in the deal, reached in Pretoria under African Union auspices.

"In the South Africa negotiations, 100 percent of the ideas Ethiopia has proposed have been accepted," he said.

The deal was announced almost exactly two years to the day since the war erupted on November 4, 2020 between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades until Abiy's election in 2018.

According to a joint statement signed by both parties, the agreement includes provisions for the disarmament of TPLF fighters and a public "commitment to safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia" -- a key demand by the government.

But details regarding its implementation remain vague, and no mention was made of Eritrea, a major player in the conflict and a battlefield ally of Abiy's government, despite international calls for Asmara to withdraw its forces from Tigray.

The agreement was greeted with cautious hope on the streets of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

"If the truce were done earlier, it would have been better. Many people wouldn't have been killed (and) displaced," businessman Million Tadesse told AFP.

Banker Degsew Assefa also welcomed the agreement, but said it needed to "be carefully implemented so we don't relapse back to war."

"There is no other option than peace," he said.

The war's toll is unknown, but the US has estimated that as many as half a million people have died in the conflict, which has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis in Tigray and caused large-scale displacement in the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar as well.

Tigray has faced severe shortages of food and medicines and limited access to electricity, banking and communications, with UN warnings that hundreds of thousands of people were on the brink of famine.

UN investigators have accused Abiy's government of crimes against humanity in Tigray, including the use of starvation as a weapon -- claims rejected by the authorities.

A Nobel Peace Prize winner, Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF after accusing the group of launching attacks on federal army camps.

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Ethiopia warring parties agree to cease hostilities
Pretoria (AFP) Nov 2, 2022
The warring sides in Ethiopia announced Wednesday an agreement to silence their guns after two years of devastating conflict that have claimed thousands of lives and left millions needing aid in Africa's second most populous country. The surprise deal between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and Tigrayan rebels was unveiled after little over a week of negotiations led by the African Union in South Africa and was hailed by the UN and the US among others. "We have agreed to permanently silen ... read more