The US government on Thursday announced the arrest of an American of Ethiopian descent for spying for an unspecified “African country”, possibly Ethiopia, AFP reports.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, a naturalized American subcontractor who worked as a systems administrator for the State Department and Justice Department, was arrested on August 24, US judicial authorities said.

He is facing criminal charges for transmitting classified and top-secret information since December 2022 through an encryption program he used to communicate with a foreign intelligence agent, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Among these documents were satellite images, as well as information about military activities in this country and its surroundings, the ministry emphasizes.

The country in question was not named, but the FBI agent indicated in his written statement that it was an “African country,” noting that the accused had recently visited the country “where he has family ties” several times.

Additionally, during his conversation with a foreign intelligence agent, the discussion focused on “the military activities of a rebel group engaged in an armed conflict with the government of the country concerned,” according to the same source.

It is therefore possible that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls this region in northern Ethiopia, is engaged in an armed conflict with the central government from November 2020 until the signing of the “Ceasefire Agreement” in November 2022.

Ethiopia is a major recipient of US aid.