Bill to rebuildĮthiopia, facing a post-conflict reconstruction bill of $20 billion, is eager to see economic and other assistance from the US and others return, but there are concerns about how the government will address the widespread human rights abuses. Out of concern for massacres, gang rapes and other abuses committed by all sides in the fighting, the US imposed sanctions and restricted economic support to Ethiopia. Communications, banking and other basic services in the region of more than five million people were cut off and only recently began to resume. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the Tigray conflict before the peace agreement was signed in November. He is due to visit the African Union, based in Ethiopia, on Thursday. Mr Blinken is on a four-day trip to Africa that includes Niger. “It's moving in the right direction.”ĭuring a visit to a UN logistics warehouse, Mr Blinken announced $331 million in new humanitarian aid, life-saving support for people affected by conflict, drought and food insecurity. “Certainly we share the aspiration of Ethiopia returning to Agoa,” Mr Blinken said. The US government restricted economic and security assistance to Ethiopia during the war and cut access to the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a duty-free trade programme that had been a boon for the country's textile sector. “Then our own ability to move forward on our engagement with Ethiopia, to include economic engagement, will also move forward,” he said.Īntony Blinken to visit Ethiopia and Niger
Still, he stopped short of ushering the country back into a US trade programme.Įthiopia must ensure “there are no ongoing gross violations of human rights” and establish an “inclusive and credible” transitional justice process, Mr Blinken said in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. Visiting Ethiopia to repair relations that were strained by the two-year war in the northern region, Mr Blinken met Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and discussed continuing efforts to solidify peace, restore basic services and address humanitarian needs. While details of Mr Blinken's talks with Ethiopian leaders on the dam issue were not disclosed, Mr Blinken made it clear that the US wants Ethiopia to demonstrate progress in implementing a deal to end the Tigray conflict before normalising relations. A satellite image of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile river in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia.
0 kommentar(er)
