Two years after the Pretoria agreements ended the Tigray war, what’s the situation on the ground? The conflict resulted in nearly 600,000 deaths, with Eritrean soldiers fighting alongside the Ethiopian federal army against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. While the peace deal called for Eritrean troops to withdraw, Eritrea never signed it, and many border areas remain occupied. Those living there feel abandoned. Our Ethiopia correspondent Clothilde Hazard reports.

Two years ago, on November 2, 2022, in the South African capital Pretoria, a peace agreement was signed between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray rebels. Its goal was to put an end to the conflict that broke out in November 2020 and wracked the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia for two years.

At least 600,000 people were killed during the war, according to an estimate by the African Union‘s envoy for the Horn of Africa. The federal authorities blocked all humanitarian aid to the region, as well as suspending banking services, telecommunications and air links.

However, belligerents who had fought alongside the federal forces, such as the Amhara militias and the Eritrean army, were not invited to Pretoria to negotiate the peace agreement.

Although the deal provided for the “withdrawal of foreign forces” – an implicit reference to Eritrean forces – the latter have not left the area. In several villages, the inhabitants live under the occupation of these Eritrean forces who impose their law, as they tell our correspondent in this report.