The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed, has appointed the spokesman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Getachew Reda, as president of the Tigray region’s interim administration, following the delisting of the rebel forces as a terrorist organisation.

Ahmed who made the appointment on Thursday, said with the move, it was the hope of the country that a recently signed peace deal that ended a two-year brutal conflict will be respected by all.

The Prime Minister, in a statement, said the move would help bolster the November 2022 agreement between the rebels and the federal government.

“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has appointed Getachew Reda as president of the Tigray region’s interim administration,” Abiy’s office said in a statement posted on Twitter.

The formation of an interim transitional government for Ethiopia’s northern region and the delisting of the TPLF as a terrorist group were among the key provisions of the peace deal signed in South Africa’s capital Pretoria, brokered by the African Union led by the ex-presidents of Nigeria and Kenya, Olusegun Obasanjo and Uhuru Kenyatta.

The agreement had stipulated the establishment of an all-inclusive interim regional administration until elections can be held in the region.

Getachew who is a senior official and adviser to TPLF leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, once served as Communications Minister in the Ethiopian federal government under former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who was in power from 2012 to 2018.

He has played a prominent role as the public face of the TPLF as well as its spokesperson and was the group’s designated negotiator during the peace deal.

Algeria on Friday, says its security agencies have dismantled an international network of human smugglers to Europe through the country.

The statement said in a bid to eliminate incidences of migrant smuggling using its coastlines,
15 members of the syndicate including nine Syrians and six Algerians were arrested by the Central Service for the Fight Against Organized Crime (SCLCO) and were charged to court on Wednesday.

Authoritative media platform, Ennharonline, reports that the investigation which lasted nearly five months, allowed the Algerian police to trace the network which transported migrants from Syria and Lebanon to Benghazi airport in Libya.

“Upon arrival, the migrants are then taken by road to the Libyan town of Ghadames from where they are smuggled to Algeria via the border town of Debdeb, following winding desert paths,” the outlet said.

“The members of this network then ensured the transport of migrants to Oran, the large metropolis of western Algeria, a place of regrouping of candidates for the clandestine crossing to Europe.”

“These migrants had to pay exorbitant sums in foreign currency to reach Europe. During this operation, the police seized more than 11,000 dollars, 8,920 euros as well as sums in Lebanese and Syrian pounds from the syndicate,” the report added.