ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia's government has signed an agreement to end hostilities with the Oromo Liberation Front, which it had previously declared a terrorist movement, state television reported on Tuesday.

The agreement appeared to be another step in a drive by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to reform institutions, open parts of the state-controlled economy and improve security and diplomatic relations. </s> ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia’s government has signed an agreement to end hostilities with the Oromo Liberation Front, which it had previously declared a terrorist movement, state television reported on Tuesday.

The deal appeared another step in a drive by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to improve security and diplomatic relations, reform institutions and open parts of the state-controlled economy.

Since the 1970s, the rebels have fought a low-level insurgency for self-determination for the Oromiya region, which is Ethiopia’s largest and home to the Oromo ethnic group.

The OLF was initially part of a transitional government set up in 1991 by rebels from the EPRDF coalition who had driven Mengistu Haile Mariam from power, but they soon fell out with the coalition.

On Tuesday, the government signed a reconciliation agreement to end hostilities with the OLF’s exiled leader Dawud Ibsa, who lives in exile in Asmara, the capital of neighbouring Eritrea, said Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

“The agreement further states that ... the OLF will conduct its political activities in Ethiopia through peaceful means,” he said on Twitter. The deal was signed in Asmara.

The group declared a unilateral ceasefire last month after parliament removed it from a list of banned terrorist groups that it had been part of since 2008.

Abiy took office in April and his reforms have included extending an olive branch to dissidents overseas.

He has also acknowledged abuses by security services and ended a military stalemate with Eritrea that followed a 1998-2000 border war in which 80,000 people are thought to have died. </s> Ethiopia's government has signed an agreement to end hostilities with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which it had previously labelled a "terrorist movement".

The deal signed in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on Tuesday appeared to be another step by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to improve security and diplomatic relations, reform institutions and open parts of the state-controlled economy.

Since the 1970s, the rebels have fought a low-level battle for self-determination for the Oromia region, which is Ethiopia's largest and home to the Oromo ethnic group.

The OLF was initially part of a transitional government set up in 1991 by rebels from a coalition, which had driven former military ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam from power, but they soon fell out with the coalition.

The government has now signed a reconciliation agreement to end hostilities with the OLF's exiled leader, Dawud Ibsa, who lives in exile in Asmara, the capital of neighbouring Eritrea, said Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel.

"The agreement further states that ... the OLF will conduct its political activities in Ethiopia through peaceful means," he said on Twitter.

The group declared a unilateral ceasefire last month after parliament removed it from a list of banned terrorist groups that it had been part of since 2008.

Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said that the agreement is a "huge boost for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed".

"Prime Minister Abiy himself is an Oromo and having a rebel group from his own community fighting his government would have been a huge setback for the raft of reforms that he has initiated in the country," Adow said, adding there are additional reasons why the OLF signed the agreement, ending hostilities with the state.

"They were getting most of their support from the Eritrean government and now that the Eritrean government has normalised relations with the Ethiopian government, that support was not forthcoming," Adow said.

Abiy took office in April and his reforms have included extending an olive branch to dissidents overseas.

He has also acknowledged abuses by security services and ended a military stalemate with Eritrea that followed a 1998-2000 border war in which 80,000 people are thought to have died. </s> The Ethiopian government has agreed a reconciliation agreement with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an ex-terror group that operated in the Oromia region of the country.

The federal government delegation comprised Foreign Affairs chief Workneh Gebeyehu and president of Oromia region Lemma Megerssa. The delegation arrived in Asmara on Monday and met with Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki.

The delegation met with OLF leader Dawud Ibsa who had been operating in neighbouring Eritrea. The Asmara meeting according to Eritrean Information Minister agreed to an immediate cessation of hostilities.

The terms of the agreement according to the Eritrean Minister are as follows:

i) Termination of hostilities; 

 ii) That OLF will conduct its political activities in Ethiopia through peaceful means.

 iii) To establish a Joint Committee to implement the agreement.

The OLF till now was one of the foreign-based armed opposition groups that had not accepted an overture by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to return to pursue peaceful struggle in the country.

The Front has for years been fighting for self-determination of the Oromo region – Oromos, PM Abiys ethnic group, are the majority ethnic group in the East African country.

Wide and ceaseless anti-government protests in the country was largely championed by the Oromos. At a point the protests were tagged as ‘Oromo protests.’ Political watchers admit it was crucial to political reforms that have since changed the country’s democratic field. </s> By Mark Anderson and Tom Gardner in Addis Ababa

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has submitted his letter of resignation as the country's ruling coalition tries to make reforms in a bid to end years of anti-government protests.

“Unrest and a political crisis have led to the loss of lives and displacement of many,” Hailemariam said in a televised address. “I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy,” he said.

Hailemariam said he would stay on as premier until the ruling coalition found a replacement.

Hailemariam's resignation comes as the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is under unprecedented pressure to end years of anti-government protests by making democratic reforms, releasing political prisoners and allowing freedom of expression.

The recent release of several high-profile political prisoners, including opposition leader Bekele Gerba and detained journalist Eskinder Nega, had buoyed hopes that real change was coming.

But years of anti-government protests in the Oromia and Amhara regions will be hard to pacify.

After demonstrations began in 2014, a nine-month state of emergency was imposed in late 2016 after hundreds of protesters were killed by security forces and thousands more were arrested.

Last year, demonstrations resumed in towns across Oromia, home to the country’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, who have long seen themselves as marginalised by the central government.

At the same time, ethnic violence – especially between Oromos and Ethiopian Somalis – has escalated sharply.

The military killed at least 16 Oromo people during anti-government protests on 14 December. In the days that followed, interethnic clashes broke out between Oromos and Somalis, killing at least 61 people.

The EPRDF, which is made up of four parties, has long been dominated by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which was founded by former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Relations between the TPLF and its sister parties – the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo People’s Democratic Organisation (OPDO) and Southern Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement – have never been more fractious.

Over the next few months, all four members of the coalition will hold conferences in their respective regional capitals before meeting in Mekelle for a coalition-wide congress later in the year. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption Ethiopia had refused to remove its troops from the region around Badme, the dusty market town at the centre of the dispute

Ethiopia's governing coalition has announced it will fully accept and implement the peace deal that ended its border war with Eritrea.

It says it will accept the outcome of a 2002 border commission ruling, which awarded disputed territories, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.

This will end a dispute with Eritrea that sparked Africa's deadliest border war in 1998.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in two years of fighting.

The two sides have remained on a war footing as Ethiopia had, until now, refused to accept the ruling of the border commission, which was set up as part of a peace deal.

As a result, Ethiopia had refused to withdraw its troops out of the disputed areas - leading Eritrea to accuse Ethiopia of forcefully occupying its territory.

"The Eritrean government should take the same stand without any prerequisite and accept our call to bring back the long-lost peace of the two brother nations as it was before," the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) wrote on Facebook.

Eritrea had refused to hold any talks with Ethiopia until it agreed unconditionally to the border commission's findings.

Ethiopia's new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had promised to make peace with the country's northern neighbour after taking power earlier this year.

BBC World Service Africa editor Will Ross says if Ethiopia does now remove soldiers from the disputed land, it would show it is serious about seeking peace.

Timeline

24 May 1993 : Eritrean independence from Ethiopia officially declared

: Eritrean independence from Ethiopia officially declared 6 May 1998 : Border war begins

: Border war begins 18 June 2000 : Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities signed

: Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities signed 12 December 2000 : Algiers Peace Agreement signed

: Algiers Peace Agreement signed 13 April 2002: The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission delivered its "final and binding" ruling

Read more: </s> (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrived in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, Sunday for talks with President Isaias Afwerki aimed at ending almost two decades of strife.

“This historic official visit and the summit that will take place between the two leaders of both countries, is the first of its kind for 20 years,” Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea’s information minister, said on his Twitter account. “It heralds a new era of peace and cooperation.”

A meeting between Isaias and Abiy, whose nations have been at odds since a 1998-2000 border war, will cap landmark talks that began last month between officials from both countries. Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993 after decades of conflict. A rapprochement began after Abiy became premier in April and the ruling party’s politburo pledged to implement a long-delayed peace deal.

Ethiopia announced on June 5 it would fully implement the so-called Algiers Agreement signed in 2000 to formally end a two-year war between the Horn of Africa neighbors that killed about 100,000 people. The deal was never enacted, with Ethiopia refusing to recognize a monitor’s findings on ownership of the disputed border town of Badme.

Isaias sent a delegation, including Foreign Minister Osman Saleh, for talks in Ethiopia after Abiy said he was keen on normalizing relations.

Abiy arrived in Asmara on an Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise plane. The national carrier is resume flights to neighboring Eritrea by September after a two-decade absence.

“Our two nations share a history and bond like no other,” the Ethiopian prime minister’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, said on his Twitter account. “We can now overcome two decades of mistrust and move in a new direction.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Helen Nyambura in Nairobi at hnyambura@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann </s> Ethiopia announced Tuesday that it would accept a 2000 peace agreement with Eritrea over their disputed border, potentially a major step toward resolving one of post-colonial Africa’s bloodiest and most protracted conflicts.

A statement by the governing party of Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa, said it would “fully accept and implement” the agreement with Eritrea, a former province of Ethiopia, which was signed but never honored.

“The Eritrean government should take the same stand without any prerequisite and accept our call to bring back the long-lost peace of the two brother nations as it was before,” the governing party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, said in the statement.

The countries fought a war from 1998 to 2000 over their border dispute, which left about 80,000 people dead. They signed a peace agreement in 2000, but the Ethiopians never accepted the findings of a boundary commission established by the agreement. </s> Ethiopia's Parliament announced an early end to a state of emergency and then the ruling party decided to unilaterally, and without any conditions, accept a peace deal with its neighbor Eritrea.

Ethiopia has made some surprising moves. The ancient nation in the Horn of Africa ended a state of emergency. The country's parliament did that sooner than planned, and then the ruling party decided to unilaterally, without any conditions, accept a peace deal with neighboring Eritrea. NPR's Eyder Peralta joins us from his base in Nairobi to talk this through. Hey there, Eyder.

INSKEEP: Wow. What does this mean for Ethiopia?

PERALTA: Well, I mean, it's a huge deal, and it's potentially historic. And, as you said, this is - it's also really surprising. It's worth looking back at where Ethiopia was just this March when the state of emergency was declared. The country had just been going through three years of bloody protests. People were complaining about corruption and lack of basic rights. And there was also ethnic overtones to all of this. The Oromos and the Amharas were protesting against the Tigrayans, who controlled a lot of the government. And, you know, it was so bad that when I was there, people were worried that this could devolve into a war. And then suddenly - and again, this was just in March - the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigns, and the ruling party, which has been in power since 1991, when it overthrew the communist Derg regime, they get together and they do something even more dramatic. They pick a young Oromo Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who had basically come to represent the opposition. And in just two months, the prime minister starts to shake things up in one of the most repressive regimes in Africa.

INSKEEP: So wait a minute. So they chose a prime minister from the outgroup - if we can try to simplify this a little bit - and are making moves to try to bring the country together.

PERALTA: Well, what's interesting is, they picked somebody from inside of the ruling party, but that had sort of come to represent the outgroup.

INSKEEP: OK. I see. And so they made this move to lift the state of emergency. They're also accepting this peace deal with Eritrea. That was a war that at one time resembled World War I trench warfare. I guess it hadn't been so intense recently, but they're settling it there. What is the broader thing that's driving this right now?

PERALTA: Well, I mean, I think the cynical view is that this is about survival, that, you know, this was a regime on the ropes, that it had a never-ending protest movement in its hands, you know? And it also had this huge - has this huge lack of foreign currency. So in some ways, you know, this was a regime that either had to make changes to basically stay in power. I mean, a more generous explanation is that this is about ambition. The Ethiopian government has made no secret that it wants its country to quickly industrialize and become a regional powerhouse. A lot of these...

INSKEEP: Well, let me ask about that, Eyder, because I've been reading that China has made big investments in Ethiopia and had been pressuring the Ethiopian government to settle some of these long-running ethnic and other disputes. Is that part of what's happening here?

PERALTA: It might be. China sort of gave a warning that said that they're going to be more careful in its investment in Ethiopia. But a lot of the problems here are domestic. I think this government is really trying to stay in power. Again, the ruling party has been in power since the '90s, and they have a lot of issues with their own people and they're trying to satisfy those issues. You know, they've released political prisoners and, you know, they say they're going to make some more democratic changes that people have been calling for on the streets.

INSKEEP: Eyder, thanks very much. Always a pleasure talking with you.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Eyder Peralta reporting on developments in Ethiopia.
The government of Ethiopia signs a deal with Oromo Liberation Front rebels in an attempt to end long-running hostilities.