US hits Ethiopia with sanctions over Tigray War

• The US has imposed "wide-ranging" economic sanctions against Ethiopia. 

• This in an effort to push the African nation to end violence in Tigray that has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

• The US sanctions will mainly affect financing to support Ethiopia’s budget, and will include a request that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund withhold funding.

The US imposed "wide-ranging" economic sanctions against Ethiopia to push the African nation led by a Nobel laureate to end violence in Tigray that has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

Visas to government and military officials from Ethiopia and its neighbour Eritrea, which is also involved in the violence in Tigray, will be restricted, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. The action sets back relations between two longtime allies in the fight against Islamist extremism in the Horn of Africa.

The US sanctions will mainly affect financing to support Ethiopia’s budget, and will include a request that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund withhold funding, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday. Ethiopia, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, is the biggest recipient in Africa of US foreign aid, receiving about $1 billion last year.

The US "has deepening concerns about the ongoing crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region," Blinken said in the statement. "Despite significant diplomatic engagement, the parties to the conflict in Tigray have taken no meaningful steps to end hostilities or pursue a peaceful resolution of the political crisis."

Violence engulfed Tigray in November, when Abiy ordered an incursion after forces loyal to the state’s dissident ruling party attacked a federal military camp in the region. The descent into violence followed months of tensions between federal and regional authorities.