U.S. Envoy for East Africa David Satterfield is expected to leave his post after just a few months on the job
Posted: 13 Apr 2022, 06:59
U.S. Envoy for East Africa to Call It Quits
David Satterfield is expected to leave his post after just a few months on the job, leaving a big vacuum at a bad time.
The top U.S. diplomat for the Horn of Africa region, David Satterfield, is leaving his post after just several months on the job, current and former officials familiar with the matter told Foreign Policy, leaving a fresh diplomatic void in a region that is confronting rising political instability, mass atrocities, and the threat of famine.
Satterfield, a veteran career diplomat who served as U.S. President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the East African region, was appointed in January to oversee U.S. efforts to address the devastating conflict in Ethiopia and respond to neighboring Sudan’s floundering efforts to transition to democracy after decades under authoritarian rule.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment to confirm Satterfield’s departure and address questions on why Satterfield was leaving his post, the timeline of his departure, or who is expected to replace him. The deputy special envoy, Payton Knopf, is expected to take over his job on an interim basis in an acting capacity, two officials said.
Satterfield, the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Lebanon, shuttled between Washington and East Africa during his tenure in the job, pushing the Ethiopian government to open humanitarian access to the country’s war-torn Tigray region and broker a peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and opposing Tigrayan rebel forces.
Satterfield’s departure comes just over three months after his initial appointment as special envoy, replacing Jeffrey Feltman, a former top U.S. and U.N. diplomat who served for less than a year on the job.
Some officials at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) and State Department didn’t see Satterfield’s departure coming, according to several officials and a congressional aide familiar with the matter. The interagency seemed “taken by surprise and vexed by how to handle this,” said the Congressional aide.
Cameron Hudson, an expert on East Africa with the Atlantic Council think tank, said the possible departure of another special envoy could hamper U.S. efforts to help negotiate a stable truce in Ethiopia—and keep both Ethiopia and Sudan at the top of the agenda in a Washington otherwise consumed by the crisis in Ukraine.
“The envoy has two areas of responsibility,” Hudson said. “One in the region offering solutions, mediating, being a senior-level American presence on the ground to push the parties. But the second and equally important job in my view is to corral the interagency to drive the policy agenda in Washington.”
“That’s a big part of the job that’s going unmet” without an envoy in place, Hudson added.
In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government announced what it called an “indefinite humanitarian truce” late last month, offering the first glimmer of hope for an eventual end to one of Africa’s deadliest wars.
READ MORE
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/12/en ... tterfield/
David Satterfield is expected to leave his post after just a few months on the job, leaving a big vacuum at a bad time.
The top U.S. diplomat for the Horn of Africa region, David Satterfield, is leaving his post after just several months on the job, current and former officials familiar with the matter told Foreign Policy, leaving a fresh diplomatic void in a region that is confronting rising political instability, mass atrocities, and the threat of famine.
Satterfield, a veteran career diplomat who served as U.S. President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the East African region, was appointed in January to oversee U.S. efforts to address the devastating conflict in Ethiopia and respond to neighboring Sudan’s floundering efforts to transition to democracy after decades under authoritarian rule.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment to confirm Satterfield’s departure and address questions on why Satterfield was leaving his post, the timeline of his departure, or who is expected to replace him. The deputy special envoy, Payton Knopf, is expected to take over his job on an interim basis in an acting capacity, two officials said.
Satterfield, the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Lebanon, shuttled between Washington and East Africa during his tenure in the job, pushing the Ethiopian government to open humanitarian access to the country’s war-torn Tigray region and broker a peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and opposing Tigrayan rebel forces.
Satterfield’s departure comes just over three months after his initial appointment as special envoy, replacing Jeffrey Feltman, a former top U.S. and U.N. diplomat who served for less than a year on the job.
Some officials at the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) and State Department didn’t see Satterfield’s departure coming, according to several officials and a congressional aide familiar with the matter. The interagency seemed “taken by surprise and vexed by how to handle this,” said the Congressional aide.
Cameron Hudson, an expert on East Africa with the Atlantic Council think tank, said the possible departure of another special envoy could hamper U.S. efforts to help negotiate a stable truce in Ethiopia—and keep both Ethiopia and Sudan at the top of the agenda in a Washington otherwise consumed by the crisis in Ukraine.
“The envoy has two areas of responsibility,” Hudson said. “One in the region offering solutions, mediating, being a senior-level American presence on the ground to push the parties. But the second and equally important job in my view is to corral the interagency to drive the policy agenda in Washington.”
“That’s a big part of the job that’s going unmet” without an envoy in place, Hudson added.
In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government announced what it called an “indefinite humanitarian truce” late last month, offering the first glimmer of hope for an eventual end to one of Africa’s deadliest wars.
READ MORE
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/12/en ... tterfield/