Ethiopian opposition leaders freed under amnesty

NAIROBI: Several high-profile Ethiopian opposition figures were tasting freedom on Saturday after the government granted a surprise amnesty for prominent political detainees, including Tigrayan party leaders.

The government said the move was designed to promote "national dialogue" and follows a dramatic shift in fortunes in the brutal 14-month war between forces loyal to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

TPLF fighters withdrew to their stronghold in the northernmost region of Tigray at the end of December in the face of a military offensive by government forces that saw them retake a string of strategic towns.

Several TPLF figures were among those pardoned, as well as opposition leaders from the Oromo ethnic group, the largest in Ethiopia, and the Amhara.

"The key to lasting unity is dialogue. Ethiopia will make any sacrifices to this end," the government communications service said in a statement late Friday announcing the amnesty.

"Its purpose is to pave the way for a lasting solution to Ethiopia’s problems in a peaceful, non-violent way... especially with the aim of making the all-inclusive national dialogue a success."

It was not clear if the government was proposing any negotiations with the TPLF, the party that dominated politics for three decades until Abiy took power in 2018 but is now considered a terrorist group by Addis Ababa.

There has been something of a pause in fighting since the TPLF retreat, although the rebels accuse the government of still carrying out deadly drone strikes on Tigray.

The UN reported this week that three people including two children had been killed in an air raid on a refugee camp in the region.

Tigray also remains under what the United Nations has called a de facto blockade that is preventing live-saving food and medicine from reaching Tigray’s six million people, where many are living in famine-like conditions.

The war in Africa’s second most populous country has claimed the lives of thousands of people, displaced around two million, and inflicted atrocities on civilians in Tigray, as well as the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions.

Abiy -- a Nobel peace laureate who reportedly went to the battlefront in November to direct his troops -- called for "national reconciliation" and "unity" in a statement issued Friday as Ethiopia celebrated Orthodox Christmas.