The decision appears to contradict reports of continued human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing campaigns in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia, potentially undermining the Biden administration’s pledge to elevate human rights to the top of its foreign-policy agenda. The notification comes on the heels of a major international aid scandal in Ethiopia. In June, Human Rights Watch released a report that found that authorities in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone had “continued an ethnic cleansing campaign against Tigrayans” despite the truce formally ending the war in November 2022. Lifting this designation, seven months after the war officially ended, will give Washington more say over IMF negotiations with Ethiopia. Human rights advocates point to the different sanction regimes imposed as a weather vane for how the conflicts are actually seen in Washington.

Source: Ethiopian News June 29, 2023 19:46 UTC