After two years of fighting that has left hundreds of thousands displaced and on the brink of starvation, the announcement came out of the latest round of peace talks in South Africa.
Months of discreet American diplomacy have failed to stop the fighting in northern Ethiopia. Now, the civil war is plunging into its most alarming phase yet.
Allegations of a second recent ethnic massacre in the restive region of Oromia further destabilize a country already coping with civil war in a northern region.
The conflict has driven up the cost of food in a region that depends heavily on crops from Russia and Ukraine and is facing what could be its worst drought in four decades.