In the midst of instability in Sudan and Ethiopia, Jeffrey Feltman departs his post after less than a year.
Ethiopian soldiers march in downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with national flags affixed to their guns.
After a year marked by violent crises in Ethiopia and Sudan, US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman will stand down “in the coming days.”
Feltman intends to resign after his current trip to Ethiopia, where a year of civil violence in the Tigray region of the country has killed tens of thousands of people. According to the State Department, the US envoy met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday.
The outgoing US ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, will take over the post, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Thursday.
Blinken said Feltman’s position as special envoy was supposed to be for less than a year, but that he would continue to serve in an advising capacity.
Satterfield, a four-decade veteran of the US Foreign Service, had a difficult job as US ambassador to Turkey, where he had to navigate a tense bilateral relationship between the two NATO members.
Increased drone exports from Turkey, most recently to Ethiopia, will be a common thread in Satterfield’s old and new jobs. In December, the United States and Turkey discussed the sale of weaponized drones to Ethiopia. According to sources, there is growing proof that the government deployed Turkish weapons against rebel forces.
“Ambassador Satterfield’s decades of diplomatic experience and work in the midst of some of the world’s most difficult conflicts will be critical in our sustained endeavour to promote a peaceful and prosperous Horn of Africa and advance US interests in this key region,” Blinken said.
Feltman, a veteran US diplomat, took over in April and was thrust into the centre of two major crises: Ethiopia’s expanding civil war between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s army, and a military coup in Sudan in October.
Even as things worsened, Ethiopian authorities assured him and others that they would seek a peaceful conclusion to the country’s issue.
Military authorities assured Feltman during discussions in Khartoum on the eve of last year’s coup that they had no plans to oust the prime minister by force. Feltman learned about the coup three hours after leaving Sudan.
The US declaration followed China’s announcement that it would establish a special envoy to foster peace in the tumultuous Horn of Africa and wants to shift the continent’s focus to trade rather than infrastructure.
The remarks were delivered by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kenya, which has been involved in diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ethiopia between the TPLF and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government since late 2020.
He also paid a visit to Eritrea, which borders the northern Tigray region and has backed Abiy in a conflict that has killed thousands, dislocated hundreds of thousands, and spread starvation.
“China will establish a special envoy of the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs for the Horn of Africa to share political consensus and coordinate efforts,” Wang said via an interpreter at a news conference in the port city of Mombasa.
