US lifts sanctions on Eritrea ‘to advance US regional interests’ in Red Sea

The United States has lifted sanctions on Eritrea, with the Department of State saying President Donald Trump had chosen not to renew the 2021 measure targeting the country on the strategic Red Sea, “to advance US regional interests”.

Eritrea’s Horn of Africa location could be key amid the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, as the Red Sea has become a key oil shipping route with the Strait of Hormuz blocked.

However, shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait has come under increasing pressure due to recent Houthi advances in Yemen against forces of the country’s internationally recognised government.

The administration of former US President Joe Biden imposed the sanctions in November 2021, which targeted the Eritrean forces and President Isaias Afwerki’s party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, as well as other players in the state.

Eritrean troops were accused of committing atrocities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, in which they backed the Ethiopian federal army. The war ended in late 2022 with the signing of a peace deal between Addis Ababa and Tigray rebels.

The US sanctions had been renewed annually under a presidential declaration of a “national emergency”, including last year by the Trump administration.

But on Friday, the US Treasury published a notice, saying the national emergency had “expired”.

Eritrea welcomed the lifting of the sanctions, saying they had caused incalculable damage to the country.

“The unilateral sanctions imposed by the Biden administration five years ago were not warranted by any metrics … In this respect, we welcome the gesture and remedial measures by the Trump administration,” Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told the Reuters news agency.

The conflict killed at least 600,000 people and led to a significant humanitarian crisis. Several hundred thousand people remain displaced.

A State Department spokesperson told the AFP news agency that while the parties’ implementation of the deal to end the war had been “uneven”, the US felt it was “time to adapt our foreign policy to current realities and collaboratively engage with both countries to advance US interests”.