US lifts sanctions on Eritrea's ruling party and military

The United States has lifted sanctions on Eritrea's military, its ruling party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, and associated entities like the Red Sea Trading Corporation. The sanctions, originally imposed by the Biden administration in 2021 during the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia—which claimed at least 600,000 lives—expired on September 18, 2026. The Trump administration chose not to renew the measures to advance US interests in the Red Sea, where Houthi advances threaten key shipping lanes.

US sanctions lifted on Eritrea

• ▪The national emergency concerning the conflict in Ethiopia, which was declared by then-President Joe Biden in September 2021 and enabled the sanctions, expired on September 18, 2026.
• ▪A United States State Department spokesperson stated that the decision not to renew the sanctions on Eritrea's ruling party and military, imposed in 2021, allows the United States to adapt its foreign policy and collaboratively engage with both Ethiopia and Eritrea
• ▪The United States Department of the Treasury lifted sanctions against Eritrea's ruling party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, and the Eritrean military on September 18, 2026.
• ▪The United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control removed sanctions against specific Eritrean individuals, including financial official Hagos Ghebrehiwet, and the Red Sea Trading Corporation.

Tigray conflict background

• ▪The United States, under the Biden administration, originally imposed sanctions on Eritrea's ruling party and military in November 2021 due to humanitarian and human rights concerns during the violent conflict in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray
• ▪The Tigray conflict resulted in the deaths of at least 600,000 people and left several hundred thousand people displaced from their homes.
• ▪During the Tigray conflict, Eritrean military forces backed Ethiopian federal troops against fighters loyal to the regional government of Tigray.
• ▪The conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia officially ended with the signing of a peace accord in November 2022.

Red Sea strategic significance

• ▪The lifting of United States sanctions on Eritrea coincided with rising security concerns in the Red Sea, where recent Houthi advances in Yemen have threatened shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
• ▪Eritrea's location in the Horn of Africa is considered strategically key for United States regional interests amid the ongoing United States-Israel war on Iran.
• ▪Eritrea's southern coast and the port of Assab are located near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Eritrean response to delisting

• ▪Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel stated that the unilateral United States sanctions imposed on Eritrea in 2021 were unwarranted and had caused considerable, incalculable damage to Eritrea
• ▪Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel welcomed the lifting of the sanctions on Eritrea's ruling party and military, imposed in 2021, calling it a positive gesture and remedial measure by the Trump administration

Debatable claims

• ▪Eritrea is a reliable partner for securing Red Sea shipping
• ▪The US should have maintained its sanctions on Eritrea