The U.S. Embassy in Asmara published on February 21 a post on its Faceebook profile with which criticized the Minister of Information, Yemane Meskel, for spreading intentionally distorted information regarding the sanctions recently approved by the U.S. against Eritrea.
Shortly before, in fact, the Eritrean information minister had written a comment on his twitter page, “Interesting times! Some powers are committed to the sacrosanct pillars of international law: ‘the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states; the right of nations to chart their own independent security architectures,’ etc.” Sanctions slammed against Eritrea for supporting the same.”
Washington’s diplomatic representation in Eritrea saw fit to respond to Minister Yemane Meskel’s externals by reiterating how the United States imposed sanctions on the single governing party PFDJ, the Eritrean army and other entities/individuals because they were involved in financing and executing Eritrea’s ill-advised military intervention in the conflict in northern Ethiopia and because, “as documented by the Ethiopian Attorney General, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the United Nations, and many others, Eritrean forces in Ethiopia have committed widespread and horrific human rights violations, including sexual violence and the killing of children; have blocked humanitarian access to people in need and forcibly returned refugees to Eritrea.”
The U.S. Embassy in Asmara went on to say that Eritrean forces should be withdrawn from northern Ethiopia immediately and permanently, because their continued presence “is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis and hampering efforts toward a negotiated resolution of the conflict.”
