A spokesman for the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has ruled out talks with the Ethiopian government while people in the beleaguered northern Tigray region are, he says, “under blockade”.
Getachew Red said on Twitter on 6th August that “it is not going to work!”
“The way I see it, the only precondition they are putting forward is that we join such a circus with our hands tied, our people starving and in the dark and with our entire population under blockade,” he said.
The Ethiopian government has named a seven-member team for the talks which it wants held without pre-conditions.
The TPLF expressed readiness last July to hold peace talks with the government, but has since demanded that the federal government allow services such as communications, electricity and banking to the troubled region.
The rebels also want the government to accept that the Tigray state will have its own army.
Source: bbc.com
