The Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa David Satterfield travels to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, February 13-14, the U.S. State Department said.
“Special Envoy Satterfield will meet with Ethiopian government, African Union, and United Nations officials, as well as representatives of humanitarian organizations,” according to the statement issued by the Office of the Spokesperson.
David Satterfield appointed the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa on January 10, 2022 replacing Jeffrey Feltma. Prior to his appointment, David Satterfield was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. He also served from June until July 2019 as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State, Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs from September 2017 to June 2019, and from July 2009 until August 2017 as the Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula.
Over the past few years, the Horn of Africa as been a center of gravity for global powers and emerging major economies including the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, Russia, France, and Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates.
As a result, most of these global powers and emerging global powers have been establishing military bases in the Horn of Africa along the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The Bab-el-Mandeb acts as a strategic link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Even though the people of the Horn of Africa are mostly living in the extrema poverty, the region is also known for having huge natural resources including untapped oil and gas, and many other precious minerals, among others.
The ongoing political unrests and transitions in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and Eritrea, among others have also been grabbing the attentions of the global powers, which are currently assigning their own special envoys to the Horn of Africa to advance their own national interest in the region often mentioned for conflict and war, food insecurity, drought, organized crimes such as piracy and terrorism, among others.