NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The leader of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region and the central government have been invited to peace talks in South Africa this weekend as part of a pan-African effort to end one of the world’s most overlooked wars, according to a letter seen Wednesday by The Associated Press.

If Debretsion Gebremichael attends the proposed talks between the Tigray and Ethiopian sides, it will be the highest-level effort yet to end the two-year war that has killed thousands of people from conflict and starvation.

A diplomat in Addis Ababa said the AU was still waiting for a response from the Tigray side. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The letter from the chair of the African Union Commission says the AU-convened talks would be “aimed at laying the foundation for a structured and sustained mediation” bet

ween the two sides toward a “durable resolution of the conflict.”

The spokesman for the Tigray forces, Getachew Reda, could not immediately be reached on Wednesday.

Ethiopia’s government in a statement confirmed the invitation to the talks and said it is “consistent with the Ethiopian government’s prior positions” that talks be mediated by the AU and be held without preconditions. The statement, however, does not give details about who might attend.