Sep. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has extended this Friday for a year the sanctions against the parties to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, considering that the situation in the region continues to be a threat to national security and the foreign policy of the United States. Joined.
“The situation in and related to northern Ethiopia (…) continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States (…). For this reason, the national emergency declared on September 17, 2021, must continue in effect beyond September 17, 2022,” Biden said in a White House statement.
According to the United States, the situation in northern Ethiopia is still today characterized by “activities that threaten the peace, security and stability” of the country and the Horn of Africa region, highlighting “widespread violence, atrocities and serious human rights abuses”.
This national emergency authorizes the application of sanctions against those involved in the conflict in the Ethiopian region of Tigray (north), including members of the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF). .
The sanctions are applied against those “responsible or complicit, who have participated directly or indirectly or who have attempted to participate” in various acts, including “actions or policies that threaten the peace, security or stability of Ethiopia”.
They also affect those who “obstruct a ceasefire or a peace process”, participate in “acts of corruption or serious human rights abuses”, “block the delivery or distribution of aid”, “attack civilians”, “plan, order or commit attacks against United Nations or African Union personnel” or “carry out actions or policies that undermine the democratic processes and institutions or the territorial integrity of Ethiopia.”
Last February, the United States Government applauded the decision of the Ethiopian Parliament to end the state of emergency decreed in the country and said that it is “another important step” to “pave the way towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict “.
“We ask that this decision be immediately followed by the release of all those arrested or detained without charge under the state of emergency,” requested US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who stressed that such a thing would facilitate “an inclusive and productive national dialogue “.
The conflict in Ethiopia broke out in November 2020 after an attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) against the main Army base, located in Mekelle, after which the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered an offensive against the group. after months of political and administrative tensions.
The state of emergency was decreed in November 2021 due to the advance of the forces of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) towards the capital, Addis Ababa, in the framework of the conflict unleashed in November 2020 in the Tigray region. Since then, thousands of people have been detained, most of them Tigrayans, for alleged ties to the TPLF.
The TPLF has accused Abiy of stirring up tensions since he came to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within the ethnically based coalition that had governed Ethiopia since 1991, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, seeing them as an attempt to undermine his influence.
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