The United States on Friday slapped new sanctions on Eritrea over the deadly conflict in neighbouring Ethiopia, which it warned was at danger of “implosion” without a negotiated settlement.
Ahead of a three-nation trip to Africa next week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also threatened to impose sanctions against the Ethiopian Government and rebels unless they move forward on talks.
Failure to reach a settlement “would lead to the implosion of Ethiopia and spill over into other countries in the region, and that would be disastrous for the Ethiopian people and also for countries in the region”, Mr. Blinken told reporters.
“The other path is to halt all of the military actions that are currently underway, sit down to negotiate a real ceasefire to make sure that humanitarian assistance can get in to all of the regions where people are in need,” he said.
The U.S. has condemned both the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a onetime ally and Nobel Peace Prize winner, over a year of blood- shed that has left hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions. But measures imposed on Friday over the conflict instead focused on Eritrea. “Eritrean forces have operated throughout Ethiopia during the conflict and have been responsible for massacres, looting and sexual assaults,” a Treasury Department statement said.
The sanctions targeted the Eritrean Defense 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.
