NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The United States says it has decided to “decouple” millions of dollars in aid to Ethiopia from the country’s dispute with Egypt over a massive hydroelectric dam project.
However, the State Department said early Friday that this does not mean that all of the $ 272 million in security and development aid will start flowing immediately, and that it depends on more recent “developments” – an apparent reference to the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
The State Department said humanitarian aid remains exempt from the suspension of aid. It said it had notified the Ethiopian government. A spokesman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ethiopians were furious after former President Donald Trump last year directed the suspension of aid to their country in a rare example of his direct involvement in an African issue. Ethiopia has abandoned a US attempt to mediate the dispute with Egypt, claiming they are biased. Trump has also caused a stir by saying downstream in Egypt will “inflate” the dam project that Cairo sees as an existential threat.
Ethiopia claims that the $ 4.6 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam that nearly completed it on the Blue Nile River is essential for the development and pulling of millions of people out of poverty. Egypt says it is threatening its water supply.
The State Department said the disruption to aid “affected about $ 23 million in security assistance, as well as about $ 249 million in development aid, which includes health, education, economic growth and democracy programs.”
Ethiopia is now under pressure from the US and others, including the European Union and the United Nations over the deadly fighting in the northern Tigray region, where about 6 million people have been largely cut off from the world since the November fighting between Ethiopians and relatives. powers began. and Tigray children.
Witness reports have surfaced about massacres, people starting to starve and the presence of thousands of soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, who have been denied by the Ethiopian government.
The US said Eritrean troops should leave Ethiopia “immediately”. And earlier this week, a State Department spokesman said: “We remain seriously concerned about the widespread humanitarian suffering and have reported that human rights are being violated in the Tigray region.”
The spokesman called for an immediate end to the fighting in Tigray, full and unhindered humanitarian access, an independent inquiry into human rights abuses and abuses and held those responsible accountable. ‘
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Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.