A Strange Change of U.S. Policy in Africa

The U.S. isn’t likely to gain much from engagement with the “North Korea of Africa,” so it isn’t clear why the administration is doing this.

The Trump administration is set to lift sanctions on one of the worst dictatorships on the planet:

The United States is set to remove sanctions against Eritrea, according to an internal U.S. government document seen by Reuters, a decision analysts linked to the ​African state's strategic location on the Red Sea shipping route.

The U.S. almost never lifts sanctions unilaterally, so it is more than a little curious that the administration is removing sanctions from Eritrea. Eritrea’s location on the Red Sea is nothing new, so it is odd that this is the reason being given for the sudden change in policy. The U.S. isn’t likely to gain much from engagement with the “North Korea of Africa,” so it isn’t clear why the administration is doing this.