Addis Abeba – U.S. President Joe Biden has extended his September 2021 Executive Order “imposing sanctions on certain persons with respect to the humanitarian and human rights crisis in Ethiopia.” Although the sanction is a year old, the U.S. government has not made the names of sanctioned officials public.
In a 09 September letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and the President of the Senate, Patrick Leahy, on the “continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Ethiopia,” President Biden announced that the “Executive Order 14046 of September 17, 2021is to continue in effect beyond September 17, 2022.”
“The situation in and in relation to northern Ethiopia, has been marked by activities that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Ethiopia and the greater Horn of Africa region — in particular, widespread violence, atrocities, and serious human rights abuse, including those involving ethnic-based violence, rape and other forms of gender-based violence, and obstruction of humanitarian operations — continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14046 with respect to Ethiopia,” the full text providing Biden’s reason for extension of the sanction regime stated.
Among the multiple restrictions stated in the Presidential Executive Order is a section authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to impose sanctions, including blocking all property and interests in property, on individuals who “threaten the peace, security, or stability of Ethiopia, or that have the purpose or effect of expanding or extending the crisis in northern Ethiopia or obstructing a ceasefire or a peace process.”
The sanction regime extends to those individuals who are deemed “political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality of the Government of Ethiopia, the Government of Eritrea or its ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Amhara regional government, or the Amhara regional or irregular forces.” AS
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