Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: Truce agreed to stop fighting in African country
- Published
Redwan Hussien Rameto (L) from the Ethiopian government, and Getachew Reda (R), who represents Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), shook hands on the deal
A surprise deal has been reached in the civil war in Ethiopia.
After two years of fighting both sides have agreed to stop the war which led to thousands of deaths and warnings of a famine in the Tigray region.
The African Union group of countries says the deal is a new "dawn", and that the agreement between the sides should allow them to give up their weapons and for aid to be delivered.
Although the deal has been welcomed, experts are cautious about it, as agreements have been made before and then quickly broken.
More about the conflict in Ethiopia
Watch Newsround's report into the situation (from June 2021)
Ethiopia is a country in the east of Africa, and is home to more than 90 different ethnic groups.
More than 102 million people live in Ethiopia - to give you an idea of size, that's around 40 million more people than live in the United Kingdom.
Tigray is a region in the north of the country.
Towards the end of 2020 fighting broke out between forces linked to a regional Tigrayan political group and troops from the national government.
Soldiers from a neighbouring country - Eritrea - are also accused of being involved.
The Tigray region is in the north of the country
Tigray has been cut off from the outside world for most of the past two years - hospitals have been running out of drugs, while electricity, phone and banking services have been cut, along with the internet.
The heavy fighting also led to many people having to flee the area and to warnings of a famine.
A famine is when at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons.
Almost 90% of people in the northern Tigray region need food aid, the World Health Organization says.
About a third of the region's children are suffering health problems from not having enough to eat.
What have people said about the deal?
The war has caused a lot of suffering in Tigray
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has described the agreement as "monumental" and promised to stick to it.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who helped get the deal agreed after a week of talks in South Africa, said it was just the beginning of the peace process.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was "a welcome first step, which we hope can start to bring some solace to the millions of Ethiopian civilians that have really suffered during this conflict".
