Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will become the first African leader to meet President Joe Biden one-on-one when the two meet for in-person talks on Thursday in the White House as war and a humanitarian crisis roil neighboring Ethiopia.

The talks with the Kenyan President in the Oval office come in the backdrop of Biden’s executive order a few weeks ago threatening to levy sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders involved in a conflict gripping the Tigray region if steps aren’t taken soon to wind down the 11-month-old war.

But the situation appears to have only worsened on the ground, with Tigray forces saying Ethiopia’s government has launched a long-threatened major military offensive against them in an attempt to end the war. A statement from the Tigray external affairs office earlier this week alleged that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian “regular and irregular fighters” launched a coordinated assault on several fronts, the Associated Press reported.

Kenya shares a border with Ethiopia and has been a partner of the United States in an effort to curb Islamic terrorism in the African continent.

Kenya currently holds the presidency of the UN Security Council, a post that rotates monthly, one reason why Kenyatta is in the United States. Kenya also has been relatively vocal among African nations on the war in Ethiopia.

Kenyatta said on Tuesday that the two sides need to come to “a political resolution because we do not believe that there is any military solution,” the Associated Press reported.

The Biden administration is conducting an interagency review of the target it may choose if it does come to sanctions. The review is, in part, to make certain all agencies are “fully on board” with proposed targets, according to a senior administration official, the AP report said.

The Biden administration has said it would move forward with sanctions quickly if there is not a dramatic shift on the ground. The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands are living in human-made famine-like conditions as the conflict festers.

With Ethiopia’s government rejecting international “meddling” in its affairs, recent emphasis has been placed on trying to find an African solution to the crisis that has killed thousands, some now by starvation.

The US and United Nations say Ethiopian troops have prevented the passage of trucks carrying food and other aid. Scores of people have starved to death, The Associated Press has reported.