One year on: moving from war to peace in Ethiopia

On this day, one year ago, I was in Asmara in Eritrea, witnessing the signing of a declaration ending over 20 years of armed conflict in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia (commonly referred to as ‘Ogaden’). For six years, I’d accompanied every twist and turn of these peace negotiations, and to see how far we had come was a moment of real pride. But we all knew that although this singing marked the end of the Ogaden insurgency, the hard work of transitioning from war to peace was just beginning. So, one year on, how far have we come and what needs to happen next?

Ethiopia: persisting with peace

One year ago, the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Government of Ethiopia signed an historic peace deal, ending nearly a quarter of a century of armed conflict in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia.

We were there, as we have been for the past seven years of negotiations, helping these two parties to reach a peace deal.

This film brings together some of the voices of this extraordinary peace process. Together, they tell the story of how over 20 years of fighting came to an end, and an armed group moved from war to peace.

Fostering pathways to peace: the sooner the better

The phases of peace processes before formal talks are marked by deep distrust, security challenges, and the need for discretion and secrecy. This results in sparse analysis or documentation of this crucial but unpredictable period of supporting pathways to peace talks. In many ways this phase remains uncharted territory compared to later phases – once public negotiations begin and when a ceasefire or peace deal is struck.

Fanny Bessem

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Fanny Bessem

Fanny Bessem is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Favour Lowcost Healthcare Foundation with over 6 years of community development and humanitarian work. She is a consultant, trainer, public speaker, mentor and mediator. She has experience in humanitarian mediation such as mediating and negotiating access to food and healthcare services to internally displaced persons affected by the current crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

Florence Mpaayei

Florence Mpaayei

Florence Mpaayei is the senior advisor and coordinator of peace-building practice at Hekima Institute for Peace Studies and International Relations. A seasoned conflict transformation and peacebuilding professional, Florence has extensive experience in designing strategies for intervention and implementing peacebuilding programmes. She has worked in numerous countries building the capacities of peace actors and particularly women in dialogue, negotiation, mediation, and mentoring young women peacebuilders.

Shree Nadarajah

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Shree Nadarajah

Shree Nadarajah has more than a decade of experience working with the United Nations on issues of children and armed conflict, and conflict-related sexual violence. She has undertaken missions to several conflict settings such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In 2014 – 2017, Shree led the engagement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in implementing the UN-MILF agreement on preventing and addressing the recruitment and use of children resulting in the successful disengagement of 1,869 children associated with the group.

Hannah Forster

Hannah Forster

Hannah Forster is a trained mediator and has over 17 years of experience in the field of conflict management. Hannah was involved in the design of and implementation of the African Transformative Justice Project which was a mediation and peacebuilding project within 4 communities in the Gambia. Recently she has been working on issues related to UNSCR 1325 in participation with the office of the African Union, as well as in collaboration with WANEP, Platforme des Femmes pour la Paix en Casamance (PFPC) and the Working Group on Women, Youth, Peace and Security in West Africa.

Justina Mike Ngwobia

Justina Mike Ngwobia

Justina Mike Ngwobia is the Executive Director of Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Movement in Nigeria, the Founder of the Women Peace Builders Network, and the co-chair Women Peace Mentors and Mediators Forum. She holds a Master degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Jos, and a certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies for the West Africa Peacebuilding Institute in Ghana. Justina is also a fellow of KAICCID, in Vienna.

Emine Colak

Emine Colak

Emine Colak has been involved in mediation, negotiation and facilitation for over 20 years. In the lead up to the referendum on the Annan Plan 2003 – 2004, she was appointed on behalf of Turkish Cypriots to coordinate committees working to reach consensus on the plan. Emine was among the founders of the Turkish Cypriot Mediation Association which carried out awareness-raising, education and mediation services based on the benefits of mediation as an alternative dispute resolving technique.

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