Blinken to visit Ethiopia as progress under Tigray peace agreement slows

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive here Tuesday, hoping to reset relations between the United States and Ethiopia after the two countries fell out over allegations of war crimes committed in the latter’s northern region of Tigray.

Blinken is making two stops in Africa, including in Niger, aimed at burnishing relations with key players on the continent amid growing Chinese influence and worries over the expanding reach of Russian mercenaries. It is the fourth high-profile visit to Africa by senior Biden administration officials this year.

His trip will include meetings with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigrayan leaders, the State Department said, and focus on the implementation of the November peace deal that ended hostilities between the two sides in the Tigray region.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous nation, a frequent contributor to international peacekeeping missions and a diplomatic heavyweight that has traditionally been a bulwark in a region afflicted by civil war and Islamist extremism. But that reputation took a hammering during the two-year civil war in Tigray.

The conflict is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people — although no one knows the true death toll — badly damaged Ethiopia’s economy and tarnished Abiy’s reformist credentials.

The allegations of rights abuses had prompted the United States to suspend Ethiopia’s participation under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which gave the country duty-free access to the U.S. market for certain goods. Ethiopia’s government is keen to have preferential trade agreements with the United States restored, but the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee, said full normalization of relations will require more steps by Ethiopia.