The United States is preparing to lift sanctions on Eritrea, according to an internal U.S. government document seen by Reuters, a move analysts told the news agency was driven by the Horn of Africa nation’s strategic position on the Red Sea shipping route.

According to a message sent by the U.S. State Department to several countries, Washington would rescind “on or around May 4” an executive order signed by former President Joe Biden in 2021 that imposed the sanctions, Reuters reported on May 5. It was not clear when the lifting would be formally announced and neither the State Department nor the Treasury immediately responded to the news agency’s requests for comment.

The move is intended to improve ties with Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline opposite Saudi Arabia, while also signaling to neighboring Ethiopia not to go to war with its longtime Horn of Africa foe, according to analysts cited by the news agency.

The war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, near Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast, have sharpened the importance of controlling the Red Sea, a key conduit for trade between the Mediterranean and Asia, Reuters said. The Horn of Africa region, meanwhile, has been destabilized by war in Sudan, tension in Somalia and fears of renewed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz means the Red Sea will be an even more contested area and this could be a signal that the U.S. will take a bigger interest in the region,” Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the International Crisis Group, told Reuters.

The 2021 sanctions, imposed under the Biden administration, targeted Eritrea’s ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), including the head of the country’s national security office, over the parties’ role in the war in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Reuters reported. 

U.N. experts and human rights advocates have accused Eritrea of widespread abuses under President Isaias Afwerki’s 30-year rule, including indefinite conscription of men and unmarried women into military or government service though officials in Asmara routinely deny such accusations, the news agency said. 

The U.S.-based advocacy group Freedom House ranks Eritrea among the most repressive countries in the world, on a par with North Korea, describing it as a militarized authoritarian state that has not held a national election since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, according to the report.