Sen. Coons on appointment of new Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chairman of the State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement on the Biden administration's appointment of Ambassador David Satterfield as the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa. Ambassador Satterfield will be succeeding Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman in the role.

"I am encouraged that Ambassador David Satterfield, the current U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, will be succeeding Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman as the U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa. Ambassador Feltman is a seasoned American diplomat with decades of service around the world, and he has maintained a steady U.S. approach to the conflict in northern Ethiopia and other regional challenges while engaging in a forceful dialogue with regional leaders. There is ongoing civil war and humanitarian disaster in northern Ethiopia, political crises continue in Sudan and Somalia, and the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam remains unresolved. The United States must sustain a leadership role in this strategically important region and work with partners and allies to find a way forward on these issues, and I am confident that Ambassador Satterfield will help ensure our efforts are effective."

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