Blinken Warns That Ethiopia May Implode as Conflict Escalates

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is “very concerned” about the potential for Ethiopia to implode, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday as the U.S. ramped up sanctions over the conflict. 

“One path forward is out-and-out conflict which could lead to the implosion of Ethiopia and spill over into other countries in the region,” Blinken told reporters during a news conference in Washington with Qatar’s foreign minister. “The other path is to halt all of the military actions that are currently underway, to sit down, to negotiate a real cease-fire.” 

Blinken said the U.S. supports the efforts of Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, to mediate between key parties, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front leader, Debretsion Gebremichael.

Blinken plans to travel to Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya next week, and the conflict in Ethiopia will be high on his agenda.  

The yearlong war there has killed thousands of people, displaced hundreds of thousands more and led the United Nations to warn that more than 400,000 people were at risk of starvation in what was one of the region’s fastest-growing economies. More than 1 million people are viewed as needing humanitarian aid.

Tensions with the TPLF, the country’s preeminent power broker for decades, intensified after Abiy came to power in 2018 and began to sideline the group. 

The discord exploded into violence last November, when Abiy ordered a military incursion into Tigray after the TPLF attacked a military base. The government offensive failed to defeat the rebel forces, and they are now about 186 miles (299 kilometers) from the capital.

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