Former rebels belonging to Ethiopia’s Ogaden National Liberation Front, ONLF, on Wednesday returned to the country from their base in neighboring Eritrea.
The contingent was flown from Asmara to Jijiga, capital of the Somali Regional State, SRSby an Ethiopian Airlines flight. They were received with cultural displays upon their arrival at the airport.
In mid-November, the group signed a peace deal with the Ethiopian federal government in Asmara, where they had been based for several years.
As part of the agreement, “The two sides have reached a historical agreement regarding the political rights of the people from Somali Regional State and genuinely addressing the root causes of the conflict between ONLF and the Ethiopian government”.
As at the last meeting, there was also the announcement of a joint committee established for further discussions. The first round of talks between the two parties was in September this year. Months earlier the Ethiopian parliament had struck them off a list of terrorist organizations whiles they also called a ceasefire.
The ONLF was formed in 1984 amid a resurgence of separatist sentiment in the ethnically Somali Ogaden region on Ethiopia’s border with Somalia.
