UNSC unanimously agrees to lift sanctions against Eritrea after nine years

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously agreed to lift sanctions against Eritrea after nine years. An arms embargo, asset freeze, and travel ban were imposed in 2009 amid claims that Eritrea supported al-Shabab militants in Somalia. However, Eritrea has always denied the accusations. 

The resolution, drafted by the UK, was backed by the US and its allies. The UN vote comes amid a thaw in relations between Eritrea and its neighbours following years of conflict. Eritrea agreed on a peace deal with Ethiopia in June following two decades of animosity, while the leader of Eritrea and the UN-backed government in Somalia recently signed a joint



cooperation agreement. The leaders of Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia met last week in northern Ethiopia to push for regional economic development. 

In his address to the General Assembly in September, Eritrea's Foreign Minister Osman Mohammed Saleh slammed the sanctions as "unwarranted," saying they had caused "considerable economic damage" and hardship for Eritreans. Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, and war broke out later that decade over a border dispute. It is an African nation which is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast.