US lifts Eritrea sanctions imposed over Ethiopian war to advance ‘regional interests’

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 — The US yesterday lifted sanctions on Eritrea imposed in 2021 over the deadly conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia, as Washington seeks to “advance US regional interests” in a country that borders the strategic Red Sea.

The US imposed the sanctions in November 2021, which targeted the Eritrean Defence Force and President Isaias Afwerki’s political party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, as well as other players in the authoritarian state.

Eritrean troops were accused of committing atrocities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, in which they backed the Ethiopian federal army. That war ended in late 2022 with the signing of a peace deal between Addis Ababa and Tigray rebels.

The US sanctions had been renewed each year under a presidential declaration of a “national emergency,” including last year by President Donald Trump.

But yesterday, the US Treasury published a notice saying that the national emergency had “expired.”

The State Department said Trump had chosen not to renew the measures targeting Eritrea “to advance US regional interests.”

The conflict left at least 600,000 people dead, and sparked a major humanitarian crisis. Several hundred thousand people remain displaced.

A State Department told AFP that while the parties’ implementation of the deal to end the war had been “uneven,” the US felt it was “time to adapt our foreign policy to current realities and collaboratively engage with both countries to advance US interests.”

Eritrea’s Horn of Africa location could be key amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, as the Red Sea has become a key oil shipping route with the Strait of Hormuz blocked.

Tensions have once again been mounting in Tigray, raising fears of a return to armed conflict. — AFP