The United States has lifted sanctions on Eritrea after President Donald Trump chose not to renew a 2021 measure, the Department of State said. The US Treasury said the presidential declaration of a national emergency underpinning the sanctions had expired.
The State Department said the decision was intended to advance US regional interests. Eritrea’s location on the Red Sea has gained strategic importance as the Strait of Hormuz is blocked and shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb faces pressure from Houthi advances in Yemen.
What the sanctions targeted
The sanctions were imposed by the administration of former President Joe Biden in November 2021. They targeted Eritrean forces, President Isaias Afwerki’s People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, and other state actors.
The measures followed allegations that Eritrean troops committed atrocities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where they supported Ethiopia’s federal army. The war ended in late 2022 with a peace agreement between Addis Ababa and Tigray rebels. Read the context: Why the Pretoria agreement has not settled Tigray’s conflict.
Why the policy changed
A presidential declaration of a “national emergency” had been renewed annually, including by the Trump administration last year. The Treasury notice said that emergency had expired rather than announcing another renewal.
A State Department spokesperson said implementation of the peace agreement had been uneven, but that Washington believed it was time to adapt its foreign policy to current realities and engage with Ethiopia and Eritrea to advance US interests.
Eritrea welcomes the move
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said the sanctions had caused “incalculable damage” and welcomed what he called remedial measures by the Trump administration.
The Tigray conflict killed at least 600,000 people, according to the supplied account, and created a major humanitarian crisis. Several hundred thousand people remain displaced.
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