Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Peace has hired Holland & Knight for strategic counsel and government relations work in DC.

The six-month contract, which began March 21, is worth $45K per month.

Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an invasion of the Tigray region of the country in November, which triggered a humanitarian crisis and sent refugees to neighboring Sudan.

Amnesty International, CNN and the BBC have shot video footage, which they say documents a massacre by Ethiopian forces.

An April 7 PBS NewsHour report charged Ethiopia’s military with carrying out an “ethnic cleansing” operation in Tigray.

Ned Price, a State Dept. spokesperson, said April 5 that the US is "gravely concerned by reported human rights violations, abuses, and atrocities in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. We strongly condemn the killings, the forced removals, the sexual assaults, the other human rights abuses that multiple organizations have reported."

Holland and Knight joins Venable on Team Ethiopia. Venable inked a $35K monthly contract that went into effect Feb. 1.

Five Holland & Knight partners represent Ethiopia including Ronald Oleynik, head of international trade who has advised clients on complying with sanctions placed on North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Syria and Russia; Francisco Sanchez, ex-undersecretary of trade in Barack Obama's Commerce Dept., and Michael Cavenaugh, co-chair of the energy team.