Washington Update: Seeking a Hearing on Ethiopia

Seeking a hearing on the crisis in Ethiopia.

Last week, I met with Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on human rights, and requested his assistance in organizing a hearing on the crisis in Ethiopia. We discussed the deteriorating human rights situation, including the government of Ethiopia’s use of drones to hunt and kill innocent civilians in the Amhara region.

I presented a letter to Senator Welch that outlines the causes and impacts of the crisis in Ethiopia and points out that political stability and economic prosperity in Ethiopia are critically important to the United States. Instability in Africa’s second-most populous nation threatens to destabilize the Horn of Africa. While crises in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere dominate the attention of the State Department and the national security community, ignoring the looming catastrophe in Ethiopia is a mistake. A hearing could help focus the Biden administration’s and Congress’s attention on helping address the situation while it is still possible to avert disaster. Time, however, is short. Congress, the Biden administration, and the world need to hear from experts who understand what is happening on the ground in Ethiopia. Separately, I have co-authored a letter to Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urgently requesting that the Africa subcommittee hold a hearing on the crisis in Ethiopia. The purpose of this hearing would be to call attention to the atrocities now taking place in Ethiopia and provide a path forward for the United States government to help bring peace to Ethiopia.

Draft constitution.

Work is continuing on efforts to draft a constitution for Ethiopia. A public meeting to discuss progress and to debate and finalize two draft constitutions from Ato Mekonen Dyamo and Dr. Abera Mesesha will be held this summer.

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