ASMARA (Halbeeg News) – Leaders of Ethiopia’s Somali regional state and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) on Tuesday held peace talks in Eritrean Capital, Asmara.
Yemane G. Meskel, Eritrea’s Information Minister said representatives of ONLF and Somali regional state’s officials led by Ahmed Shide, Federal communication minister & Chairman of the Somali People’s Democratic Party (SPDP) have discussed “modalities of peace talks in Asmara.
The discussion, which was also attended by Mustafa Omer, the newly appointed deputy president of the Somali regional state, focused on “ways of resolving the longstanding conflict in Somali Region,” a statement from the ONLF said.
“The parties have reached a common understanding on the issues discussed and way forward. They agreed to work together peacefully to protect the interests of the people of the Somali Region and collaborate on national issues including the future of Horn of Africa integration,” ONLF said in a twitter post.
On August 12, ONLF declared a unilateral ceasefire and some of its members have returned to Ethiopia. However, this is the first formal peace talk between ONLF and the Ethiopian government.
This week, ONLF’s foreign secretary, Ahmed Yassin Abdi told Bloomberg News that the organisation ‘will demand a referendum on self-determination’.
‘‘We want to achieve self-determination recognized by international law under the current Ethiopian constitution,” Abdi was quoted as saying.
ONLF, a separatist group established in 1984, had been labeled a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government, until recently when parliament passed a resolution removing the organisation off the list.
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