ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s federal government says the future of contested land in its northern Tigray region will be settled by a referendum, and hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people will be returned. The disputed status of western Tigray, a patch of fertile land bordering Sudan, was a key flashpoint in the two-year conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, and the federal government. Western Tigray belongs to Tigray under Ethiopia’s constitution. A referendum will then be held to reach “a final determination on the fate of these areas,” the statement said. Suggestions that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed might return western Tigray and other disputed land to Tigray helped fuel the violence, which has turned into a rumbling insurgency in the countryside.

---

Persons: Abiy Ahmed Organizations: —, United Nations Locations: ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Tigray, Sudan, Western Tigray, Amhara, Fano, Ethiopia's, Adet