ADDIS ABABA: Eritrean troops have left the ancient city of Axum in Tigray but remain in two other towns in the war-stricken Ethiopian region, local residents said Sunday, as the United States hailed a pullout seen as key to a landmark peace deal.

The Eritrean army had moved across the border into Tigray to support federal government forces against the region’s dissident authorities in a conflict that erupted in November 2020 and has since killed untold numbers of civilians and set off a desperate humanitarian crisis.

A peace deal between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed in South Africa’s capital Pretoria in November last year silenced the guns in the north of Africa’s second most populous state.