Ethiopia’s MPs to discuss lifting of state of emergency

Ethiopia's parliament will meet today to debate whether to lift a six-month-old nationwide state of emergency.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government invited parliamentarians, now in recess, for an emergency meeting, said local news outlet Ethiopia Insider.

The call for the meeting came a day after the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, began an official visit in the capital Addis Ababa.

But it was not clear whether the two events were linked.

During his two-day visit, Satterfield was to hold meetings with Ethiopian government officials, the African Union, and United Nations officials and representatives of humanitarian groups, an official statement said.

The state of emergency was imposed on November 2 after Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces took control of several towns outside the Tigray region and advanced towards Addis Ababa.

The decree was to be in place for six months but after TPLF forces retreated from several areas of the Amhara region, PM Abiy’s cabinet decided to lift it three weeks ago and forwarded its decision to the parliament for approval.

The cabinet said it made the decision because security had improved.

"Now we have reached a stage where threats can be neutralised through regular law enforcement mechanisms," the prime minister’s office said in a statement in late January.

The Tuesday emergency meeting call came amid diplomatic efforts to end the 15-month conflict in parts of Ethiopia's north.

The UN last Wednesday expressed hope that peace talks between the Ethiopian government and Tigray leaders would end the conflict.

After visiting the war-torn regions of Tigray, Amhara and Afar last week, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said there were promising developments in the talks.

"We are definitely in a better position right now. There are more discussions,” Ms Mohammed told reporters in Addis Ababa.

"There is certainly less hostility than there was a few months ago."

The fighting between Ethiopian government forces and TPLF broke out in November 2020.

The civil war in the Horn of Africa nation has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and displaced millions from their homes.

An estimated 9.4 million people in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Millions more are also suffering from severe food shortages, acute malnutrition is rising, and disease and chronic illnesses are going untreated.