NAIROBI, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Ethiopian rebels announced a ceasefire on Sunday while a U.N. mission assesses their claims of human rights abuses in the remote eastern Ogaden region.
"Effective immediately, armed forces of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) will cease all offensive military operations against regime troops and sponsored militias for the duration of the U.N. fact finding mission," the ONLF said.
In a statement, the rebels said all units had been told to react only if fired upon.
"The ONLF urges the mission team members to visit all parts of Ogaden in order to investigate war crimes and not limit their mission to the few routes approved by the Meles Zenawi regime."
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government began a crackdown on the ONLF earlier this year after it carried out one of its bloodiest attacks, killing 74 people at a Chinese-run oil field.
Some rights groups have accused the Ethiopian military of shooting civilians, burning homes and seizing livestock.
The ONLF accuses the authorities of blockading food relief, choking commercial trade and risking "man-made famine".
But the government denies that, saying the rebels are terrorists backed by its arch foe Eritrea. The arid region is effectively off-limits to most rights workers and journalists.
The 14-person U.N. mission, which arrived in the region on Thursday, is also examining the food, water and health needs of its ethnic Somalis, who are largely cut off from the rest of the country by security concerns and poor infrastructure.
Populated mostly by nomadic herders, the area has long suffered cycles of drought and flooding.
International aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) accused the government on Friday of denying it access to Ogaden, and last month the International Committee of the Red Cross said the Ethiopian authorities had ordered it to stop work there.
