Eritrea rubbishes US sanctions against top military official

Just hours after the United States imposed sanctions on a senior Eritrean military leader for engaging in "serious human rights abuse" in Tigray, the Horn country has come out to rubbish the move. 

The US Treasury Department had earlier said that forces under the command of General Filipos Woldeyohannes, chief of staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF), were responsible for "massacres, looting, and sexual assaults."

To this end, the US said any property or interests belonging to him in the country would be frozen and American citizens barred from doing business with him.

However, the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday issued a statement saying "the government rejects both, in letter and spirit, the utterly baseless allegations and blackmail directed against it."

"This is not the first time for the US administration to float such baseless smear campaigns against Eritrea," the statement said. 

"In the face of the repetitive and unwarranted accusations, Eritrea can't remain silent in the circumstances. Eritrea calls on the US administration to bring the case to an independent adjudication if it it indeed has facts to prove to its false allegations" Asmara added.

The government of Eritrea further urged the UN security council to "shoulder its responsibility to deter and seek redress to repeated acts of flagrant violations of international law and the sovereignty of peoples and nations by the US."