A 27-member Cabinet for Ethiopia’s war-scarred Tigray was unveiled on Wednesday, official media in the region reported, the latest step in a peace process to end two years of brutal conflict.
The Cabinet includes members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and military commanders who fought federal forces during the war, Tigrai TV reported.
The establishment of an interim administration was a key tenet of a peace deal signed in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, in November last year by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the TPLF.
Last month, the Ethiopian government said TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda, the public face of the rebels during the war, had been appointed head of the interim government.
That followed the Ethiopian parliament’s move to remove the TPLF from an official list of terrorist groups in line with the November deal.
Debretsion Gebremichael, who had been president of the Tigray region since 2018, formally handed over the reins to Getachew during a ceremony on Wednesday, Tigrai TV reported.
“Members of the interim administration of Tigray, you have been given a responsibility to play your part in this peaceful stage of the struggle to ensure the security and the interests of the people of Tigray,” said Debretsion, who does not figure in the new lineup.
General Tadesse Worede, commander of Tigrayan forces during the war, has been named regional vice president, in charge of peace and security.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
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