Reuters will step down as US Special Representative for the Horn of Africa

Author: Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman will step down after more than nine months in office this month, and David Satterfield, Turkey’s U.S. ambassador, will step down three times. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Feltman, a veteran U.S. diplomat, took office in April and quickly found himself in the midst of two major crises: the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) deepening the Ethiopian civil war and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s army. as well as a military coup in Sudan in October.

The news of his unannounced departure came before he arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday to discuss peace talks with top government officials as part of Washington’s latest push to end the conflict.

Feltman, 62, said https://www.reuters.com/world/sense-duty-puts-veteran-us-envoy-middle-ethiopia-conflict-2021-11-05 had a “sense of duty.” “Almost retired” after serving as a US diplomat for more than 25 years in the United Nations, the Middle East and North Africa.

Feltman took the role with the intention of serving less than a year, according to a source familiar with the matter. According to the source, Satterfield will continue to focus on the US, thanks to the continuing instability in the region and the interrelated challenges.

The State Department declined to comment.

Ethiopian government spokeswoman Legesse Tulu declined to comment because it was an internal matter of the U.S. government.

Feltman has endured strong headwinds to move forward. The one-year war between the Ethiopian government and the leader of the northern Tigray region, among the bloodiest conflicts in Africa, has killed thousands of civilians, displaced millions and sparked famine.

Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), did not immediately contact them for comment.

In Sudan, protests have continued for weeks, including Tuesday, two days after Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdo resigned. From 2019 until he staged a coup, he was reinstated on November 21 in a deal that the protesters strongly rejected in an agreement.

Satterfield, a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service with more than four decades of experience, has had a difficult job as a U.S. ambassador to Turkey, where he sailed in a close bilateral relationship between the two NATO allies.

Prior to Ankara, he worked in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Syria, among others, and worked twice as a senior U.S. diplomat for the State Department for Middle East Affairs.

Turkey’s growing exports of drones, most recently to Ethiopia, will be a common thread in Satterfield’s old and new missions. In December, Washington boosted sales of armed drones to Ethiopia with Turkey. Sources say there is growing evidence that the government used weapons against the rebels.