Biden Authorizes Sanctions Against Ethiopia Following CNN Report About Tigray Atrocities

Photo by AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP via Getty Images.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday authorizing sanctions against those involved in the atrocities in the Ethiopian region of Tigray.

Sanctions were not immediately enacted under the order, but the United States is “prepared to take aggressive action under this new executive order to impose targeted sanctions against a wide range of individuals or entities,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on a call previewing the announcement, according to multiple media reports.

The executive order follows a CNN report last week a new offensive by the Ethiopian government and militia reports against Tigrayans that has included both ethnic cleansing and mass detentions. The atrocities in Tigray have occurred since November 2020.

“The ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia is a tragedy causing immense human suffering and threatens the unity of the Ethiopian state. Nearly one million people are living in famine-like conditions, and millions more face acute food insecurity as a direct consequence of the violence,” said Biden in a statement on Friday. “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.”

Biden added, “I join leaders from across Africa and around the world in urging the parties to the conflict to halt their military campaigns respect human rights, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and come to the negotiating table without preconditions. Eritrean forces must withdraw from Ethiopia. A different path is possible but leaders must make the choice to pursue it.”

He continued:

My administration will continue to press for a negotiated ceasefire, an end to abuses of innocent civilians, and humanitarian access to those in need. The Executive Order I signed today establishes a new sanctions regime that will allow us to target those responsible for, or complicit in, prolonging the conflict in Ethiopia, obstructing humanitarian access, or preventing a ceasefire. It provides the Department of the Treasury with the necessary authority to hold accountable those in the Government of Ethiopia, Government of Eritrea, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and Amhara regional government, among others, that continue to pursue conflict over negotiations to the detriment of the Ethiopian people.

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