The European Union has unfrozen more than €140 million in budgetary aid for Ethiopia, ending a five-year suspension that began with the outbreak of the Tigray civil war in 2020. The funds are designated for healthcare, agriculture, and digital growth.
The conflict officially ended with the Pretoria agreement in 2022, but the funding remained blocked until Monday, when the EU cited confidence in Ethiopia’s reform agenda. Spokesperson Tom Kennedy noted that the government’s macroeconomic efforts toward market liberalization – partly driven by ambitions to join the World Trade Organization – underpinned the decision.
However, the timing has raised concerns. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) recently refused Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s decision to extend the president of the interim administration by one year, calling it a breach of the Pretoria agreement. Kennedy added that tensions between the TPLF and federal forces “have never been so high since the end of the war.” Humanitarian aid has also failed to properly reach the Tigray region, where over half of schools remain closed and roughly one million people live in internally displaced camps.
