By Yemane Nagish

The United West Somali Liberation Front signed a peace treaty with the government of Ethiopia. In a peace treaty signed on Thursday at Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, the front agreed to shun from its anti-peace actions. The leader of the front, Sheik Ibrahim Hussein, said he will work on the peace and security of the Somali region with the government of Ethiopia.

The Minister of Federal Affairs, Dr. Shiferaw Tekle-Mariam, on his part, said the Ethiopian government had pledged that resistance fighters would be given a chance to blend with the community if they changed their destructive ways. According to him, such acts will help rebuild peace and security in the region.

Resistance fighters from different regions as well as different government officials, including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s advisor, Abay Tsehaye, were present during the signing of the treaty.
The United Western Somali Liberation Front has been conducting a war of insurgency against the government ever since the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took over from the military Derg regime. The resistance has been an ally of the Al Itad movement and was consistently striving to split the Ethiopian Somali region and form an independent Western Somalia region.

The front called on the Ogaden National Freedom Movement to come to a similar peace agreement with the Ethiopian government during the signing ceremony.

EthiopianReporter