Biden threatens new Ethiopia sanctions
NAIROBI, Kenya — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday threatening sweeping new sanctions against leaders in the widening war in northern Ethiopia, the strongest effort yet by the United States to halt the fighting and allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to flow into the region.
The administration has not yet applied the sanctions, hoping to shift the course of the war without directly punishing officials from Ethiopia. With both sides pushing hard for a military victory, critics said the latest measures may be too little, or too late.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate now targeted with possible sanctions, reacted with indignation and defiance. In a three-page statement, his office accused the West of bias, denounced any criticisms of Ethiopia as the product of neocolonial impulses and showed no sign that he intended to bow to Biden’s demands.
The U.S. action is driven by a sense of urgency at a rapidly deteriorating situation and fears that fighting could intensify with the coming end of the rainy season. Just 10 percent of required humanitarian aid reached the Tigray region last month as a result of Ethiopian government obstruction, according to two U.S. officials who provided a background briefing to reporters.
Fighters from various factions have been accused of atrocities against civilians, with the latest accusations including the Tigrayan forces that are fighting the Ethiopian central government. And Abiy has intensified a mass recruitment drive and acquired new weapons in advance of an expected surge in fighting next month, the officials said.
“Nearly 1 million people are living in famine-like conditions,” Biden said in a statement. “Humanitarian workers have been blocked, harassed and killed. I am appalled by the reports of mass murder, rape and other sexual violence to terrorize civilian populations.”
The sanctions threatened by the order would target individuals and entities from the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Amhara regional government, which face possible asset freezes and travel bans.
They are a step up from weaker and largely ineffectual measures, including visa restrictions, imposed by the United States in May. For now, the new sanctions have yet to be imposed on anyone, and one of the administration officials who provided background declined to give a timeline.
To avoid sanctions, the United States is demanding that leaders on all sides enter peace negotiations and accept mediation under former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, an African Union envoy who is scheduled to land in Ethiopia this weekend.
To ease the humanitarian crisis in Tigray, where 5 million people are in urgent need of help, the Ethiopian government must allow daily convoys of relief trucks and restore basic services like electricity, communications and banking, the official added.
“A different path is possible, but leaders must make the choice to pursue it,” Biden said.