Senate Democrats led by Jeanne Shaheen are urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene as fighting renews in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. They say the African Union-brokered deal that ended the 2020–22 civil war is unraveling, amid fears of a return to war.
The senators condemned a drone strike on a truck carrying US-funded food aid for displaced people in northwestern Tigray; the Ethiopian military is suspected. They also accused Tigrayan forces of undermining the region’s interim government, refusing to disarm and forcibly conscripting civilians.
Last week, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front declared a “defensive war,” seized key locations and pushed into Afar and Amhara. Days earlier, it had publicly allied with armed groups seeking to overthrow Ethiopia’s federal government. The senators also faulted the Trump administration for letting the broader Ethiopia sanctions program expire days before hostilities resumed. The administration imposed sanctions in June on unnamed TPLF officials it said were undermining peace, and condemned the aid-convoy strike without naming who was responsible.
