THE European Union has imposed sanctions on Eritrea over human rights violations and blacklisted the country's National Security Office which is tasked with intelligence gathering, arrests and interrogations. At the beginning of March, the United Nations said Eritrean troops were operating throughout Ethiopia's northern Tigray region and reports suggested they were responsible for atrocities. "The National Security Office is responsible for serious human rights violations in Eritrea, in particular arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances of persons and torture," the EU said after foreign ministers of the 27-nation bloc agreed the measures. The sanctions mean an asset freeze in the…