US President Joe Biden nominated State Department diplomat Ervin Jose Massinga as ambassador to Ethiopia.

A Foreign Service Minister Counselor and the State Department’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, Ervin Massinga served as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs between 2020 and 2021, his biography reads.

Massinga served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Khartoum, Sudan from 2016-2018, and in Conakry, Guinea from 2013-2016, according to the information posted on the U.S. State Department website.

“Other assignments include overseas tours in the Dominican Republic, Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, and China, as well as domestic assignments in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Bureau of African Affairs, the Bureau of Energy and Economic Affairs, and at the Office of the United States Trade Representative” the website stated.

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has to hold a hearing to confirm the ambassadorial nominee.

If confirmed, Massinga’s arrival in Addis Ababa comes after the previous ambassador, Geeta Pasi, left the post in January 2022, reportedly to pursue other opportunities. Tracey Ann Jacobson has been serving as Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim in the meantime.

Since the conflict erupted in northern Ethiopia, the bilateral relationship between Ethiopia and the United States has been strained, and Ethiopia has been expulsed from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) duty-free trade scheme at the beginning of January 2022.