Three sources familiar with the situation told reporters on Wednesday that US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffrey Feltman will stand down this month after more than nine months on the job, and David Satterfield, the outgoing US ambassador to Turkey, will take over.
Feltman, a veteran US diplomat, took over in April and was thrust into the middle of two major crises: Ethiopia’s deepening civil war between forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s army, and Sudan’s military coup in October.
The announcement of his departure came as he prepared to travel to Ethiopia on Thursday to speak with senior government officials about the peace talks, which is part of Washington’s latest drive to resolve the conflict.
After more than 25 years as an American diplomat with postings to the United Nations, the Middle East, and North Africa, Feltman, 62, said a “sense of responsibility” drew him out of “quasi-retirement.”
According to a source acquainted with the situation, Feltman took the job with the goal of serving for less than a year. According to the source, Satterfield will maintain a strong US presence in the region, which is important due to the region’s persistent instability and interconnected difficulties.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Because it was an internal US government affair, Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu declined to comment.
Feltman’s progress has been hampered by severe headwinds. Thousands of civilians have been killed, millions have been displaced, and starvation has erupted as a result of Ethiopia’s government’s year-long war with the leaders of the northern Tigray region, which is one of Africa’s worst conflicts.
Getachew Reda, the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s (TPLF) spokesperson, could not be reached for comment right away.
Protests in Sudan have raged for weeks, culminating on Tuesday, two days after Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigned. He served from 2019 until the coup, then was reinstated on Nov. 21 in a deal with the military that demonstrators overwhelmingly rejected.
Satterfield, a four-decade veteran of the US Foreign Service, had a difficult job as the US ambassador to Turkey, where he had to navigate a tense bilateral relationship between the two NATO members.
Prior to Ankara, he served in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Syria, among other places, and was the chief US diplomat for Middle East affairs twice at the State Department.
Increased drone exports from Turkey, most recently to Ethiopia, will be a common thread in Satterfield’s old and new jobs. In December, the US increased its supplies of weaponized drones to Ethiopia alongside Turkey. According to sources, there is a growing body of evidence that the government used weapons against rebel fighters.
