ADDIS ABABA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has confirmed that his government is set for peace talks with Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebels slated to begin in Tanzania on Tuesday.
"I call on everybody to play its part to help relieve the current misery being endured by people in the Wollega area (western Oromia)," the prime minister said at a ceremony on Sunday honoring a previous peace deal achieved between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front in November 2022 which ended a two-year brutal war.
This is the first time the Ethiopian government has confirmed that it will formally sit for peace talks with OLA rebels which have been fighting government forces in various parts of Ethiopia's largest region, Oromia, for several years.
Ahmed also said the Ethiopian government and people desire too much for the negotiation with the OLA to succeed.
Early Monday morning, the OLA released a statement confirming it will sit for peace talks with the federal government with the involvement of an "independent third-party mediator."
The OLA said it hopes the upcoming peace talks pave the way for a positive step toward establishing peace in the Oromia region.
The OLA is a breakaway faction of ex-rebel group Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an opposition political party claiming to fight for the rights of ethnic Oromos who make up about 35 percent of Ethiopia's population.
The OLA, with an estimated 3,000 fighters, operates mainly in the western and southern parts of the Oromia Region, the principal homeland of ethnic Oromos.
In May 2021, the Ethiopian parliament voted to designate the OLA as a terrorist group, a designation still in effect now. ■