A deal has been reached in the Ethiopian civil war with both sides agreeing to halt their two-year conflict, which led to thousands of deaths and warnings of a famine.
The African Union (AU) has called it a new “dawn”, AFP news agency says.
The agreement between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces should allow aid deliveries to resume.
Almost 90% of people in the northern Tigray region need food aid, the World Health Organization says.
About a third of the region’s children are suffering from malnutrition.
Both sides agreed to a disarmament plan as well as unhindered access to humanitarian supplies, said former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who mediated the talks.
He said the deal, agreed after a week of talks in South Africa, was just the beginning of the peace process in Ethiopia.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was “a welcome first step, which we hope can start to bring some solace to the millions of Ethiopian civilians that have really suffered during this conflict,” reports the Reuters news agency.
Tigray has been cut off from the outside world for most of the past two years – hospitals have been running out of drugs, while banking services have been cut, along with the internet and phone lines.
Both sides have been accused of atrocities, include ethnic cleansing and sexual violence.
Reporting by BBC Africa
