US Continues Non-Humanitarian 'Assistance Pause' to Pressure Ethiopia to End Tigray Conflict

The United States is pressing Ethiopia to end the conflict in its Tigray region that has been raging for almost six months. U.S. officials are also calling for allied Eritrean troops to withdraw from the region.  

The United States will continue to pause non-humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia to pressure Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government to do more to stop the “deteriorating humanitarian and human rights crisis,” officials said. “The fighting must come to an end.  There must be humanitarian access, which has been a problem,” the State Department’s acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Robert Godec, told VOA on Monday during a briefing by phone. “We need the human rights abuses and atrocities to stop.  We need the Eritreans and the Amhara [militia] to leave.  And we need, really, an end to this conflict,” Godec added.