Ugandan President calls on East African leaders to hold summit on Ethiopian crisis.

KAMPALA,UGANDA ( RTN ) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has requested a conference of East African bloc leaders for November 16 to discuss the Ethiopian situation, Okello Oryem,  state minister for international affairs has revealed.

"President Museveni has spoken with Prime Minister Abiy about the current situation in Ethiopia, expressing worry about the Tigray group's refusal to engage in discussions and reach a truce.

As a result, we're apprehensive "Uganda's state minister for international affairs, Okello Oryem, spoke to RTN about the situation. 

Ugandan president Museveni  Welcoming his Ethiopian counterpart Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at State House Entebbe.

 

Following a year of combat that has claimed thousands of lives, displaced over one million people, and pushed portions of the country into hunger, the Ethiopian civil war has moved significantly in favor of rebel troops.


While visiting Ethiopia last month, President Yoweri Museveni urged African political leaders and the African people in general to avoid the politics of identity that have characterized most of post-independence Africa, noting that politics of identity based on tribes and religions is counterproductive, diversionary, and has resulted in the emergency of many failed states. 

The President was speaking in Meskel Square in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, where he addressed a massive crowd of Ethiopians, as well as many other African leaders, to commemorate Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's inauguration for a new five-year term.


After forcing government troops out of Tigray in June, fighters from Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray and their allies are advancing south toward Addis Ababa, according to reports. 

Ugandan president Museveni being Welcomed by his Ethiopian counterpart Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

 

In late October, rebel forces led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front took control of two strategic towns on the main route leading to Addis Ababa.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged citizens to pick up guns in order to stop the fighters from "driving the country to its destruction."


The government announced a state of emergency on Nov. 2 in response to the quick escalation of a war that threatens to split Ethiopia, an American military partner, apart and further destabilize the dangerous Horn of Africa area.

Over the last year, witnesses have reported killings, pervasive sexual violence, and other human rights crimes, many of which have been corroborated by a United Nations-led investigation. 

Mr. Abiy appeared to be hell-bent on overthrowing the T.P.L.F., a political party of rebels turned rulers who had ruled Ethiopia for over three decades.


Mr. Abiy, a former intelligence officer, had previously served in the T.P.L.F.-controlled government.
However, after taking government in 2018, he began depleting the group's authority and influence in Ethiopia, angering Tigrayan leaders.