美国国家公共电台 NPR--Ethiopia and Tigray have agreed to a cessation of hostilities

Ethiopia and Tigray have agreed to a cessation of hostilities¹

Transcript²

After two years of catastrophic and brutal³ conflict, Ethiopia's warring sides have agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Ethiopia's government has agreed to a cease-fire with leaders of a rebellious⁴ region.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Tigray region has been embroiled⁵ in fighting against the central government for the past two years. There's a humanitarian⁶ catastrophe⁷ there. The war has displaced millions of people in northern Ethiopia. Tens of thousands of civilians⁸ have been killed. The fighting has temporarily come to a halt after peace talks mediated⁹ by a former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

OLUSEGUN OBASANJO: This moment is not the end of peace process but the beginning of it. Implementation¹⁰ of the peace agreement signed today is critical to the success of the process.

INSKEEP: We're joined now by Fred Harter, who is a Sunday Times journalist based in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Welcome to the program.

FRED HARTER: Hi. Thanks for having me.

INSKEEP: Is this a peace deal or merely a halt in the fighting for a moment?

HARTER: So this is the announcement of a formal cessation of hostilities. The parties have agreed, in the short, immediate¹¹ term, to stop shooting each other, but they've also agreed to longer-term issues such as restoring aid access to Tigray and also restoring phone and internet services to Tigray, which have mostly been down since the conflict started two years ago. So as Obasanjo emphasized, this is the start of a longer peace process, and there's lots of thorny¹² political issues that have not been touched upon in the deal and will need to be agreed at a later date. So this is the start of a longer peace process.

INSKEEP: I should mention there is this underlying¹³ dispute between the prime minister and the leaders of this region, members of a party that he was once a member of. It doesn't sound like their underlying disagreement has been addressed at all yet.

HARTER: No. What was at stake was basically a power struggle at the center of government. Abiy came in - the current prime minister came in in 2018, and he was trying to stamp his own mark of authority on the country. He wanted to centralize power. That's what his critics would say. And the Tigray region and him really fell out when the COVID-19 pandemic suspended elections. And the Tigray People's Liberation Front, Tigray's ruling party, went ahead with elections, leading to the federal government to suspend aid to the region. And that's what eventually led to the conflict breaking out two years ago.

INSKEEP: So as they begin those talks, what shape is the country in?

HARTER: Well, the country is very divided. There's been a lot of damage to infrastructure¹⁴. When I was there, there was hospitals that had been completely destroyed by both sides, schools that were emptied. And you have a lot of people living in IDP camps across the country, some of them in very hard conditions.

INSKEEP: There must be people who are in desperate need of immediate help.

HARTER: Yes. Millions of people have been displaced, and many more also needing aid. The U.N. says that of Tigray's 6 million population, about 5.2 million are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. There have been reports of starvation-related deaths in Tigray. And I was recently shared a document by a humanitarian agency from Friday last week which said that roughly a third of children that were screened for malnourishment and three-quarters of lactating mothers were malnourished. So there's a large need to get aid into the region very quickly.

INSKEEP: Fred Harter of the Sunday Times in Ethiopia, thanks so much.

HARTER: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHIL FRANCE'S "THE SWIMMER")

1 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

4 rebellious   

adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的

参考例句：

• They will be in danger if they are rebellious.如果他们造反，他们就要发生危险。
• Her reply was mild enough,but her thoughts were rebellious.她的回答虽然很温和，但她的心里十分反感。

5 embroiled   

adj.卷入的；纠缠不清的

参考例句：

• He became embroiled in a dispute with his neighbours. 他与邻居们发生了争执。
• John and Peter were quarrelling, but Mary refused to get embroiled. 约翰和彼得在争吵，但玛丽不愿卷入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

7 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

8 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

9 mediated   

调停，调解，斡旋( mediate的过去式和过去分词 )； 居间促成； 影响…的发生； 使…可能发生

参考例句：

• He mediated in the quarrel between the two boys. 他调解两个孩子之间的争吵。
• The government mediated between the workers and the employers. 政府在工人与雇主间搞调和。

10 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

11 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

12 thorny   

adj.多刺的，棘手的

参考例句：

• The young captain is pondering over a thorny problem.年轻的上尉正在思考一个棘手的问题。
• The boys argued over the thorny points in the lesson.孩子们辩论功课中的难点。

13 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

14 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。