United States  Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeff Feltman     (Photo Credit:  Wikipedia Commons Patrick Tsui/FCO)

By  Gary  Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman is urging a diplomatic solution to the year-long military conflict  in Ethiopia.  Ambassador Feltman returned from Ethiopia this week – his second trip there in just a couple of weeks- and gave an update to journalists on the situation in the Horn of Africa nation.  Feltman was cautiously optimistic, saying there is some nascent progress in trying to get the parties to move from a military confrontation to a negotiating process, “but what concerns us is that this fragile progress risks being outpaced by the alarming developments on the ground that threaten Ethiopia’s overall stability and unity.”  Feltman, a former United Nations official and seasoned diplomat,  was appointed by President Biden  as the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa region last month.   The appointment came amid growing U.S. concern over the volatile situation in Ethiopia, including the conflict in Tigray.

“Our goal is to support diplomacy as the first, as the last, and as the only approach to address the underlying causes of this conflict.  We are not taking sides here.  Rumors that we are supporting one side are simply false. I want to be clear:  The basis for talks to lead to de-escalation and a negotiated ceasefire exists.  Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy told me again on Sunday that his top priority is to get the Tigrayan Defense Forces and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, the TDF and the TPLF, out of the lands that they have occupied in the states of Amhara and Afar and get them back into Tigray.  We share that objective.  The TDF and TPLF leaders that we have engaged tell us that their top priority is to break the de facto humanitarian siege that the Government of Ethiopia has imposed on Tigray since July.  We share that objective as well.”

-U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman

“Unfortunately, each side is trying to achieve its goal by military force, and each side seems to believe that it’s on the cusp of winning.  After more than a year of fighting and hundreds of thousands of casualties and people displaced by fighting, it should be clear that there is no military solution.” 

US Envoy Says Continued War Risks Unraveling Africa’s Second-Most Populous  Country

“Continued war risks unraveling Africa’s second-most-populous country, the home of the African Union, and the traditional linchpin of security and stability in the strategic Horn of Africa/Red Sea area.  We’re putting our collective – we’re putting our diplomatic tools behind the collective efforts to promote de-escalation and a negotiated ceasefire.  It is time for the Ethiopians to pursue their objectives not on the battlefield, but at the negotiating table,”  Ambassador Feltman said.

TDF/TPLF  Moving On Addis Ababa  Is  “Alarming”

“For a while the lines were static, and then about a week ago, the TDF/TPLF started to move again.  And this alarms us.  It alarms us for several reasons.  It alarms us because more – the more that you have the military conflict expand, the more people are affected. The closer that the TDF is able to move to Addis, its own demands may increase and what it would expect in the negotiating process.  And I want to make it clear we are absolutely opposed to the TDF threatening Addis by cutting off the road to Djibouti or threatening Addis by actually entering Addis.”  – Ambassador Feltman.

Department Of State Orders Departure Of U.S. Citizens in ETHIOPIA Amid Civil Unrest

The Department of State has ordered the departure of non-emergency American government employees and their families in Ethiopia amid armed conflict, civil unrest and possibly shortages  in the Horn of Africa nation.  The State Department urges U.S citizens in Ethiopia to depart now using commercially available options.  “I want to reiterate that the Department of State has been urging U.S. citizens in Ethiopia to depart now using commercially available options.  The U.S. embassy has been issuing daily messages to U.S. citizens since early November with this message,”  Ambassador Feltman said.