WASHINGTON DROPS ERITREA SANCTIONS AS RED SEA GAINS STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

The United States has ended sanctions imposed on Eritrea in 2021, with Washington saying the decision is part of an effort to adjust its policy and advance its regional interests around the strategically important Red Sea. The US Treasury Department announced that the national emergency under which the sanctions had been maintained had expired, bringing an end to the measures targeting several Eritrean entities and individuals.

The sanctions, introduced during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, had targeted the Eritrean Defence Forces, the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice and other actors in the country. Eritrean troops had fought alongside Ethiopian federal forces during the conflict and were accused of atrocities. The war ended in late 2022 after the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces signed a peace agreement.

The restrictions had been renewed annually under a presidential declaration of a national emergency, including during Donald Trump’s first year of the current administration. However, the US government did not renew the emergency this year. The Treasury subsequently confirmed that it had expired, resulting in the removal of the affected Eritrean entities from the relevant US sanctions list.

The decision comes as Eritrea’s location on the Red Sea attracts renewed strategic attention. The country has a long coastline facing major maritime routes and lies close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key passage connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. The waterway has become increasingly important amid disruptions to regional shipping and the wider conflict involving Iran, Israel and other actors in the Middle East.

Eritrea welcomed Washington’s decision, with Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel saying the sanctions had caused significant damage to the country. A US State Department spokesperson said the implementation of the peace agreement ending the Tigray conflict had been uneven but that Washington considered it necessary to adapt its foreign policy to current realities and engage with Ethiopia and Eritrea in ways that advance US interests. The Tigray conflict is estimated to have killed at least 600,000 people and displaced several hundred thousand others.