Ethiopia–United States relations

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Ethiopia-United States relations
Map indicating locations of Ethiopia and USA

Ethiopia
United States
Diplomatic mission
Embassy of Ethiopia, Washington, D.C.N/A
Envoy
Ethiopia Ambassador to the United States Fitsum AregaAmbassador Ervin Jose Massinga

Ethiopia–United States relations are

Global War on Terrorism. The United States is the largest donor to Ethiopia: in 2008 U.S. foreign aid to Ethiopia totaled US$969 million, in 2009 $916 million, with 2010 estimated at $513 million and $586 million requested for 2011.[1] U.S. development assistance to Ethiopia is focused on reducing poverty and supporting economic development emphasizes economic, governance, and social sector policy reforms. Some military training funds, including training in such issues as the laws of war and observance of human rights
, also are provided.

Recently, the

human rights violations. According to Human Rights Watch, the aid given by the United States is being abused to erode democracy in Ethiopia.[2] However, in September 2020, the United States suspended part of its economic assistance to Ethiopia due to the lack of sufficient progress in negotiations with Sudan and Egypt over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.[3]

The current

Deputy Chief of Mission Troy Fitrell. The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia is located in Addis Ababa
.

According to the 2016 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 29% of

Ethiopians approve of U.S. leadership, with 4% disapproving and 67% uncertain.[4]

20th century

U.S.-Ethiopian relations were established in 1903, after nine days of meetings in Ethiopia between Emperor

attempted Italian occupation
in 1935.

Italian attempted conquest in 1935.[6]

In his autobiography, Emperor

Haile Selassie notes that the United States was one of only five countries which refused to recognize the Italian attempted conquest of his country.[7]

President Kennedy and Haile Selassie in 1963

Following the return of Emperor Haile Selassie to Ethiopia, the United States certified Ethiopia for participation in

British who had been at odds with the Ethiopian government over the disposition of Eritrea and the Ogaden.[9]
These ties were strengthened with the signing of the September 1951 treaty of amity and economic relations.
Ethiopia-United States Mapping Mission.[12] Through fiscal year 1978, the United States provided Ethiopia with $282 million in military assistance and $366 million in economic assistance in agriculture, education, public health, and transportation
.

Emperor Haille Sellasse and President Nixon in 1969.

Ethiopia was one of the first countries to take part in the American

U.S. Information Service
educational and cultural exchanges were also an important part of their relations.

Mengistu Regime

After the

human rights abuses. The United States rebuffed Ethiopia's request for increased military assistance to intensify its fight against the Eritrean secessionist movement and to repel the Somali invasion. The International Security and Development Act of 1985 prohibited all U.S. economic assistance to Ethiopia with the exception of humanitarian disaster and emergency relief. In July 1980, the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia was recalled at the request of the Ethiopian Government (who was then Frederic L. Chapin), and the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Embassy in the United States were headed subsequently by Chargé d'affaires.[14]

Post-Mengistu regime

With the downfall of Mengistu Haile Mariam (who had taken control of the Derg), U.S.-Ethiopian relations improved as legislative restrictions on non-humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia were lifted. Diplomatic relations were upgraded to the ambassadorial level in 1992. Total U.S. government assistance, including food aid, between 1991 and 2003 was $2.3 billion. During the severe drought year of 2003, the U.S. provided a record $553.1 million in assistance, of which $471.7 million was food aid.[14]

21st century

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2023
The US delivers Janssen COVID-19 vaccines to Ethiopia as part of the COVAX initiative in 2021

U.S. Congress legislation

The U.S. Congress, however, attempted to set conditions, over the objections of the

independent media
could function without excessive interference, full, normal military aid could resume. The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act would have restricted security assistance and imposed travel restrictions on Ethiopian officials accused of human rights violations unless Ethiopia met the conditions – although the legislation would have given the president a waiver to prevent such measures from taking force.

The Act also exempted counter-terrorism, peacekeeping operations, and international military training from any funding restrictions, a reflection of Ethiopia's military capabilities and its perceived role as a source of stability in the volatile Horn of Africa.[16]

In 2006, the Ethiopian government hired law firm

Bracewell and Giuliani to lobby for the passage of H.R. 2003.[18]

When asked about H.R. 2003, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that "The administration does not support this particular house resolution."[19] The Bush administration believed that human rights violations in Ethiopia needed to be addressed, but it claimed that H.R. 2003 was not the best method to do so.[20] Instead, Secretary Rice announced that the administration was working with NGOs to improve the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia and that a good relationship with the Ethiopian government was essential for the efficacy of those programs.[20]

In 2021, the Ethiopian government hired former Representative Joe Garcia to lobby on its behalf.[21]

Global War on Terror

Ethiopia is an important country to the United States in the

Global War on Terrorism. The Pentagon needs Ethiopia and its intelligence service to counter the influence of Al-Qaeda fighters in the neighboring Somalia.[2]

The

War on Terrorism.[22]

Human rights violations

Human rights groups have accused the United States of giving Ethiopia's Prime Minister

Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front of having "total control of local and district administrators to monitor and intimidate individuals at the household level." The report author Ben Rawlence also said that "Meles is using aid to build a one-party state" and accused foreign governments of having colluded in eroding civil liberties and democracy by letting their aid be manipulated by Zenawi. The Ethiopian government has denounced the report as "outrageous".[2]

Human rights violations in Ethiopia have created a strain in the two countries relations. Jendayi Frazer, head of U.S. African policy as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs at the Bureau of African Affairs, spoke of "unprecedented" agreements between the Ethiopian opposition and government, which she said were "a monumental advancement in the political environment". Examples she gave included reform of the National Election Board of Ethiopia and a new code of conduct for the press. But she added that the U.S. had raised "strong concerns" about human rights violations. In April 2010, Ethiopia attempted to jam broadcasts of the

Radio Mille Collines, which had helped provoke genocide in Rwanda. The Economist pointed out that the U.S. response to these accusations had been rather muted, probably due to the importance of the U.S.-Ethiopia alliance.[2]

During the outbreak of the

2016 Ethiopian protests the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa released a statement in which it said the U.S. government was “deeply concerned with the extensive violence.”[23]

In 2022 America announced that it would be issuing sanctions against Ethiopian national whom it accused of having a role in the Tigray Conflict.[24] However, in September 2022, Senator Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the Biden administration for hesitating to impose sanctions on the government of Ethiopia, where many atrocities and war crimes were committed in the civil war between the government and the rebels.[25]

In February 2021, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned ethnic cleansing in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia and called for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces and other fighters.[26][27] In March 2023, Blinken met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa to normalize relations between the United States and Ethiopia that were strained by the Tigray War between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels.[28]

On 30 June 2023, the United States lifted aid restrictions on Ethiopia. According to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, the restrictions were lifted due to progress on human rights, particularly after the cessation-of-hostilities agreement. While violence continues in the Tigray region, the focus of assistance is on supporting peace, demining efforts, and accountability.[29]

African integration

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and President Obama at the White House in 2014

ethnicities) and corruption. He suggested an intensified democratization and free trade, to significantly increase living quality for Africans.[30][31]

In December 2022, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attended the United States–Africa Leaders Summit 2022 in Washington, D.C., and met with US President Joe Biden.[32]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ "US AID to Ethiopia Fact sheet: FY 2008-11 USAID-State Foreign Assistance Appropriations" Archived 2011-10-26 at the Wayback Machine, US AID website (accessed 19 December 2010)
  2. ^ a b c d "Ethiopia's elections: Forget about Democracy", The Economist, March 25, 2010. pp. 38-39
  3. ^ "US suspends aid to Ethiopia over Blue Nile dam dispute". Al Jazeera. September 3, 2020.
  4. ^ The U.S.-Global Leadership Report (Report). Gallup Inc. 2016. p. 3. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  5. LNTS
    517. Treaty of Conciliation: 46 Stat. 2368, TS 799, 7 Bevans 665, 101 LNTS 529
  6. ^ Bahru Zewde, Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia (Oxford: James Currey, 2002), pp. 39f
  7. ^ Haile Selassie I, My Life and Ethiopia's Progress, Haile Sellassie I, King of Kings of Ethiopia: Addis Abeba, 1966 E.C. translated by Ezekiel Gebissa, et alia, (Chicago: Frontline Books, 1999), vol. 2 p. 22
  8. ^ John Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay: A personal account of the Haile Selassie years (Algonac: Reference Publications, 1984), p. 144
  9. ^ Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay, pp. 159f
  10. UNTS
    41.
  11. ^ U.S. Requests for Ethiopian Bases Pushed Toledo Blade, March 13, 1957
  12. ^ "ethi-usmappingmission.com". www.ethi-usmappingmission.com.
  13. ^ Ethiopia Archived 2010-07-10 at the Wayback Machine, Peace Corps website (accessed 6 July 2010)
  14. ^ a b Ethiopia: US-Ethiopia relations, United States State Department website (accessed 19 December 2010)
  15. ^ Donald, Payne (2007-10-03). "Actions - H.R.2003 - 110th Congress (2007-2008): Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007". www.congress.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  16. ^ Jopson, Barney; Daniel Dombey (October 3, 2007), "Ethiopia bill faces Bush backlash", The Financial Times
  17. ^ "Documents". efile.fara.gov. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  18. ^
    JSTOR j.ctt155jkdt
    .
  19. ^ "Joint Press Availability with African Great Lakes State Leaders". 2001-2009.state.gov. 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  20. ^ a b "Interview With Tefera Ggedamu of Ethiopia TV". 2001-2009.state.gov. 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  21. ^ Oprysko, Caitlin. "Former congressman will lobby for Ethiopian government". POLITICO. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  22. ^ "‘Outsourced Guantanamo’–FBI & CIA Interrogating Detainees in Secret Ethiopian Jails, U.S. Citizen Among Those Held", Democracy Now!, April 5, 2007
  23. ^ Several dozen shot dead in weekend protests across Ethiopia, 8 Aug. 2016, Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/several-dozen-fatally-shot-in-weekend-protests-across-ethiopia/2016/08/08/e03956d6-5d96-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html
  24. ^ "Issuance of Ethiopia Sanctions Regulations; Implementation of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act". U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  25. ^ "Team Biden Balks on Africa Sanctions". Foreign Policy. 20 October 2022.
  26. ^ "Top US diplomat decries 'ethnic cleansing' in Ethiopia's Tigray". Al Jazeera. March 10, 2021. Archived from the original on February 13, 2023. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  27. ^ "The World's Deadliest War Isn't in Ukraine, But in Ethiopia". The Washington Post. March 23, 2022. Archived from the original on November 10, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  28. ^ "Blinken praises Ethiopia on Tigray peace, no return to trade programme yet". Reuters. 15 March 2023.
  29. ^ Holland, Steve; Psaledakis, Daphne (2023-07-30). "US lifts some restrictions on Ethiopia after human rights improvements". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  30. ^ Lee, Carol E. "Obama Becomes First U.S. President to Address African Union". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  31. National Archives
    .
  32. ^ "Africa: Heads of Delegation for U.S–Africa Leaders Summit – White House". AllAfrica. 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2022-12-16.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.

Further reading

  • Getahun, Solomon Addis. The History of Ethiopian Immigrants and Refugees in America, 1900-2000: Patterns of Migration, Survival, and Adjustment (New York: LFB Scholarly Pub., 2007).
  • Kobel, Paul S. "Ethiopian Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2014), pp. 107–118. online
  • McVety, Amanda Kay. Enlightened Aid: U.S. Development as Foreign Policy in Ethiopia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • Metaferia, Getachew. Ethiopia and the United States: History, Diplomacy, and Analysis (2009) online Archived 2019-03-28 at the Wayback Machine
  • Ofcansky, Thomas P., and LaVerle Berry. Ethiopia: A Country of Study (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1993). online

External links

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