Ethiopia's Tigray rebels say Olusegun Obasanjo not impartial in peace talks

Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo speaks speaks at the launch of the AU-LED report on Tigray peace process during the 38th African Union (AU) Summit, at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa on February 16, 2025. [AFP]

Ethiopia's Tigray rebels have accused the African Union's special envoy, Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo, of not being impartial as he seeks to prevent renewed civil war.

The federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) have massed forces on the border of the northern region in recent months, raising fears of a return to the devastating war of 2020-22 that killed some 600,000 people.

Obasanjo was a key broker of the 2022 Pretoria Agreement that ended that conflict, and he was recently mandated as the African Union's Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa to renew his work after many key aspects of the deal have not been implemented.

"Although we remain firmly committed to peace and credible dialogue, we have not found in (Obasanjo) the impartial and proactive mediator required by the gravity of the present crisis," TPLF authorities said in a statement on Sunday.

The TPLF complained that Obasanjo visited Tigray in August "without prior notice, without concrete proposals, and without a clearly defined agenda".

The federal government has not publicly commented on Obasanjo's renewed mediation efforts, and the African Union did not immediately respond to requests for comment from AFP.

The TPLF ruled the whole of Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018 before being sidelined with the rise of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, eventually triggering the civil war.