The African Union-led negotiations have been flagged to start on Monday, after a surge in fighting in the north of Ethiopia in recent weeks that has triggered alarm in the international community.
NAIROBI - Negotiators from the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebel authorities were readying Monday for peace talks in South Africa aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the country's brutal two-year war.
But it also announced that its forces "have continued taking control of major urban centres in the past few days", without identifying them. "Ethiopia will be peaceful, we will not continue fighting indefinitely," the Nobel Peace Prize winner said Thursday. Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year, and independent reporting from the region has been heavily curtailed.The UN Security Council held a closed-door meeting on Friday to discuss the spiralling conflict and growing fears for civilians caught in the crossfire.