Nairobi, Dec. 31 -- Ethiopia's Tigray region, at war for the last two years, may finally be looking up to long-term peace after Eritrean forces, a key party to the war began packing to leave the battlefield.

The decision for Eritrea to leave Tigray was reached this week after a delegation of Ethiopian government officials for the first time toured Makelle, the capital of the region, since the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA).

CoHA was signed by the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), labelled as 'combatants' on the agreement. But Eritrea which had sided with the Ethiopian government in the war had not signed, something that had been a bone of contention on how to disarm the TPLF....