U.S Secretary of State, Antony Blinken is in Ethiopia to meet with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and others about the recovery from a devastating two-year conflict in the country’s Tigray region that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Blinken is set to assess the implementation of the peace deal that ended Ethiopia’s civil war. He will also discuss humanitarian needs and human rights concerns during meetings with aid workers and civil society groups. Blinken will address journalists later.
Ethiopia’s government disclosed that Blinken’s visit also includes discussions about a dispute with downstream Egypt over Ethiopia’s completion of Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam.
Ethiopia’s government is eager to see the return of economic and other assistance from the U.S. and others, but there are concerns about how the government will address the widespread human rights abuses committed by all sides in the conflict. The government has objected to a United Nations commission of inquiry.
“There’s a lot to be done,” Blinken told Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen. “But the most important thing is to keep the peace that has now taken hold in the north and to strengthen our ties as we move along,” he added.
A peace deal signed by the government and Tigray representatives in November, 2022 is still being implemented in a region of more than 5 million people that saw communications, banking and other basic services cut off for much of the conflict.
Humanitarian organizations now returning to the region report hunger and lack of medical supplies, with many health centers damaged or destroyed.
A major challenge to the peace deal is the presence of troops from neighboring Eritrea, which was allied with Ethiopia’s government in the conflict and was not a party to the agreement. Observers have said the Eritreans have pulled back to border areas.
Blinken will travel to Niger after Ethiopia where he will discuss the growing jihadist movement across the Sahel.
Blinken Urged To Address Human Rights Issues
Kate Hixon, Africa advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA, has urged that Blinken should center all his engagements with the government of Ethiopia around human rights.
“There still needs to be improved access throughout the country for humanitarian actors and human rights monitors. We also still need to see more commitment on justice and accountability and would really like for Secretary Blinken to push that.”
Kate Hixon
Sarah Yager, Washington Director at Human Rights, asserted, “Ethiopia has been backsliding on democracy and freedoms across the country, and abuses are still continuing in some of those same places where the worst suffering has happened.”
“So, we are seeing detentions, killings, sexual violence. These things are still ongoing and so that’s why we want to see Secretary Blinken deliver some tough messages about accountability when he is there.”
Sarah Yager
U.S.-Ethiopia Relations
The United States and Ethiopia share a long-standing and important partnership based on mutual interests in promoting peace, stability, and economic development. The United States has maintained diplomatic relations with Ethiopia since 1903.
The United States is the largest bilateral donor in Ethiopia. Since 2020, the United States has provided an estimated $3.16 billion in humanitarian assistance in response to the conflict as well as an ongoing drought.
Over the past 20 years, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has invested nearly $3 billion to support HIV/AIDS response in Ethiopia. The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) has invested $544 million to support the fight against malaria in Ethiopia since 2008.
On November 2, 2022, under the auspices of the African Union and with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the United Nations, and the United States as observers, the Government of Ethiopia and Tigray People’s Liberation Front signed the “Agreement for Lasting Peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities” (COHA), ending the conflict that broke out in November 2020. The COHA is in effect and in the implementation phase.
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