President Salva Kiir at the state house on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 | Credit | Office of the President

President Salva Kiir has offered to mediate Ethiopian peace talks.

The development comes after theSudanese Prime Minister, Abdallah Hamdok – who is also the chair of the regional block Inter Governmental Authority on Development, IGAD – requested him to held resolve the conflict.

According to the government’s spokesperson, IGAD said President Kiir “is the right person” to mediate the talks between Addis Ababa and the regional government in Tigray.

Michael Makuei said the Ethiopian government has accepted for the initiation of the talks with its rivals.

“He [Hamdok] also requested President Salva to mediate on the Ethiopian-Sudanese dispute on the border,” he told reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting.

On 26 August, Kiir traveled to Ethiopia for a one day visit where he held talks with Prime Minister Dr. Abby Ahmed.

Fighting broke out in November 2020 between Ethiopia’s federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the region of some six million people.

Thousands have died and more than two million people have been forced to flee their homes.

The war has dragged on for months, triggering a humanitarian crisis in Tigray – leaving 400,000 people food-insecure, according to the United Nations.