A man is standing next to members of his family who have their twin nieces who were born during the hostilities, in Wukro, north of Mekele, on March 1st.
Photographer: Eduardo Soteras / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Eduardo Soteras / AFP / Getty Images
The European Union plans to impose specific sanctions on several people in Eritrea for their alleged role in human rights abuses and atrocities in northern Ethiopia, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The proposal will be made by the European Commission in the Member States in Brussels on Monday, according to people, who decline to be identified because the information is not public. EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told reporters ahead of the meeting that the bloc plans to discuss “the framework for sanctions against human rights violations” in Ethiopia and Myanmar, and that they will be given to find out more details later.
Both the EU and the United States have called on Eritrean troops to leave the Tigray region of Ethiopia after denouncing looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses. The United States has urged Europe to increase pressure on Ethiopia and Eritrea to slow the conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is currently in Brussels to talk to Borrell and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the people.
Any proposal to impose sanctions on Eritreans would be “ridiculous,” Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said by telephone. “I can’t see what the rational is even in terms of legality and morality.”
– With the assistance of Paul Richardson