Horn of Africa geopolitics

In the high-stakes theater of Horn of Africa politics, a familiar script is being rehearsed. The stage is set in Addis Ababa, the lead actor is the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, and the plot revolves around a dramatic, almost comedic, attempt to recast an aggressor as the aggrieved

Cairo was more than a ceremonial trip. When Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki stood beside President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi this November, the message wasn’t about museums or optics — it was a map of how the Red Sea will now be governed. No slogans. No ambiguity. A littoral doctrin

President Isaias Afwerki held talks with Mr. Guang Cong, the newly appointed United Nations Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, at Denden Guest House on Wednesday afternoon. The discussions centered on regional developments and the UN’s role in conflict resolution across the Hor

The Red Sea has always been more than a body of water. It is a living archive, a sacred artery of trade, migration, and memory. Long before colonial maps carved borders into the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea was a mirror of endurance — a cradle where civilizations learned to breath

In a wide-ranging interview with AlQahera News aired from Cairo, Eritrean President  Isaias Afwerki  delivered one of his most candid and uncompromising statements on the state of the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea, and Africa’s enduring struggle against external manipulation. His w

In a sharply worded interview with Saudi Arabian state-owned media Al Arabiya, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty proclaimed that the governance of the Red Sea is strictly the business of coastal states, and excluded the land-locked Ethiopia from any participation: “Geograph

Sovereignty  — the sacred right of a people to chart their own destiny, guard their lands and waters, and govern themselves — is not lost in a single stroke, nor is it undone in a day. More often, it is tested, challenged, and chipped away, piece by piece, through strategies that

For years, Ethiopian officials and state-aligned media have repeated a striking claim — that the country spends enormous sums each year on port access through Djibouti because Eritrea allegedly denied it a route to the Red Sea. The narrative, now echoed across speeches and social

When "Think Tanks" Drift Into Fantasy It is often said that politics in the Horn of Africa suffers from a chronic shortage of clear-eyed realism and an overabundance of wishful thinking. Few recent publications capture this affliction as vividly as a September 30 essay by  Horn R

On September 8, ahead of the inauguration of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed once again ignited regional tensions by declaring on state-run EBC that “it is only a matter of time before Ethiopia regains control of the Red Sea port o

There are battlefields defined by tanks and trenches, and there are those fought in boardrooms, backchannels, and behind closed doors - silent but no less brutal.  The Red Sea corridor is one such battleground. It is not simply a waterway. It is the spine of global commerce, the

In a stark warning that underscores rising tensions in the Horn of Africa, President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea has sharply criticized the Ethiopian government's “infantile” provocations and veiled war preparations, accusing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration of dangerousl