NOVEMBER 18, 2020

RANKING MEMBER MENENDEZ STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD ON PREVENTING CONFLICT AND SUPPORTING DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION IN ETHIOPIA

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today submitted the following statement for the Senate record condemning the escalating violence in Ethiopia between the Federal government and political leaders of the Tigray region, and calling for an immediate ceasefire to begin a sustained dialogue that settles political differences.

“I rise today to call upon the Administration to take urgent diplomatic action to address the escalating conflict in Ethiopia, a country in the midst of what many in the international community–including myself– had hoped would be a historic political transition to democracy.  Instead the country is sliding into civil war.  Unless the international community acts quickly to forestall further violence, I fear that bloody and protracted conflict is unavoidable.