There was a brief hiatus after 19 December when Debretsion Gebremichael leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) announced Tigray's forces were withdrawing to their home region to create space for negotiations on a ceasefire (Dispatches 20/12/21 Tigrayan offer to withdraw opens door to a ceasefire as UN Security Council debates humanitarian crisis)...

For now the onus is on a few individuals such as Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo who as the AU's Special Envoy was cleared by Addis to fly to the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle to meet TPLF President Debretsion Gebremichael on 7 November...

Some in Abiy's government had been predicting a split in the Tigray leadership between regional and TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael and TDF commanders led by General Tsadkan Gebretensae...

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael and his colleagues still back a federal structure but he has warned that the war had persuaded more Tigrayans to back secession...

TPLF leader and regional President Debretsion Gebremichael called for mediation on 14 November urging the UN and AU to engage: 'Abiy Ahmed is waging this war on the people of Tigray and is responsible for the purposeful infliction of human suffering...

Tigray's President Debretsion Gebremichael told Africa Confidential on 7 November that now 'there is no Northern Command' meaning it is now under Tigray's control...

TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael has publicly maintained the pre-Abiy political line of hostility towards President Issayas...