The Ethiopian government announced on Saturday that it is sending about $90 million to the Tigrayan capital Mekele to help restart banking services in the country. The prime minister met with Tigrayan leaders for the first time since a peace agreement was signed in Pretoria in November after a violent conflict between the federal government and rebels in the northern Ethiopian region. Since the agreement was signed, fighting has stopped and aid deliveries to Tigray have resumed. The US puts the death toll from the war at 500,000.