African Union welcomed the statement from the rebels as the Ethiopian government had previously announced readiness for peace talks.
Mike Hammer, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, will head this weekend to Ethiopia and "convey that all parties should halt military operations and engage in peace talks," says White House.
The bombardment came just days after fighting erupted on Tigray's southern border between government forces and rebels, ending a five-month truce.
The Ethiopian government accuses the TPLF of launching an attack and "destroying the truce," while the rebels claim the military began a “large-scale” offensive towards southern Tigray.
Ethiopia's peace committee says it has drawn up a "peace proposal" to try to end the war that erupted in November 2020, but Tigray rebels dismiss the call as "obfuscation".
Five employees of a channel linked to Tigray rebels were arrested in May and June, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.
Parliament's announcement comes as African Union calls for a probe into killings in Oromia state's western area, where OLA rebels are accused of killing hundreds of people.
PM Abiy Ahmed announces formation of a working group led by deputy PM that "will study how we will conduct talks" with Tigrayan rebels to end nearly two-year conflict in Africa's second-most populous nation.
Up to 550 ethnic Tigrayan soldiers serving as UN peacekeepers in Abyei, a contested area on Sudan's border with South Sudan, refuse to go to Ethiopia fearing reprisals, say officials working in refugee response.
While the deaths from malnutrition — recorded between June last year and April 1 — are close to 2,000, the number is likely higher as most hunger deaths go unrecorded.
The war-torn region of nearly six million people has been subject to what the UN said is a de-facto blockade with the government and rebels both accused of human rights violations.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has catalogued a litany of abuses, including torture, gang rape and enforced disappearances, saying some may amount to war crimes.
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