Inside Biden-Harris White House and Africa: President Biden changes strategy on Ethiopia, calls Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, gives conditions

U.S. President?Joseph R. Biden Jr.?spoke on Monday with Prime Minister?Abiy Ahmed Ali?of Ethiopia to discuss the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia and opportunities to advance peace and reconciliation. It was his first phone call to Abiy since he came to power a year ago.

A senior administration official who later briefed reporters from Washington went into details about the call, revealing, for instance, that Mr. Biden told the Nobel Peace Prize winning Prime Minister to embrace peace and not war.

More specifically, President Biden told PM Abiy not to send troops into Ethiopia's Tigray region to avoid further escalation of the conflict, and to allow humanitarian access across the country to reach the dying people in need.

The official gave even more details, revealing for instance why the change in strategy was occurring now, and indicating that Ethiopia has consumed much more resources, as noted by Today News Africa in our recent publication, than the rest of the continent.

The call with reporters gave us a deeper insight into where the Biden administration stands at the moment and how it intends to re-engage with the African continent in 2022.

As noted by our publication, the strategy in Ethiopia has failed, and the re-engagement may be moving things in the right direction. By right direction, we mean peace, sincere negotiations, humanitarian access, normalization of relations between the United States and Ethiopia, re-establishment of trade agreements such as AGOA.

But it also means holding the war criminals accountable and ensuring that human rights are respected and that all Ethiopians are treated the same way. And that is our take today.

Simon Ateba, Publisher and White House Correspondent for Today News Africa in Washington

Note: Kindly subscribe to gain full access to our content by clicking here.

Note: Kindly donate to support our publication by clicking here.