Senate Democrats urge Trump administration to act on renewed Tigray fighting

Senate Democrats, headed by Jeanne Shaheen, are urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene as fighting resurges in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, reviving fears of a repeat of the 2020-2022 civil war. The senators, all of whom sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Africa panel, criticized both sides: they denounced a drone attack on a truck carrying U.S.-funded food aid, which the Ethiopian military is suspected of carrying out, and they accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of sabotaging the interim government, refusing to disarm and forcibly recruiting civilians.

They also blamed the Trump administration for letting sanctions on regional actors expire days before hostilities reignited. The State Department has condemned the aid convoy strike without assigning blame. The escalation follows the TPLF’s declaration of a “defensive war” and its recent alliance with other armed groups aiming to overthrow Ethiopia’s federal government, raising concerns of broader regional instability.