Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AHN) – A peace deal has been signed between Ethiopia’s government and the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). ONLF, which represents Ethiopian Somalis, has been in an ongoing armed conflict waged for an independent state in the eastern region of Ogaden since 1984.

“The state of insurgency is terminated and peace is established,” Minister of Federal Affairs Shiferaw Teklemariam said at the signing ceremony on Tuesday.

As part of the agreement authorities announced they would release the last remaining ONLF members currently incarcerated.

“By signing this peace agreement, we hope to bring sustainable peace and development to the Ogaden region,” ONLF chairman Salhadin Abdurahaman Maow said.

He also said ONLF has come to understand the destructive nature of war and that war is not the only solution. Additionally he vowed that he would contribute in the efforts to expedite development in the region.

However a spokesman for a rival wing in the fractious ONLF run by former Somali navy chief Admiral Mohamed Omar Osman called the deal “irrelevant,” prompting questions about its breadth and staying power.

In April 2007, the ONLF had attacked a Chinese-run oil field in Ethiopia’s Somali Region. The attack left 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese nationals dead.

Following the attack government security forces commenced a military crackdown. In mid-September, the government said its forces had killed 123 ONLF militants.

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