THE AFRICAN RED SEA TRAP: Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia Caught Between Regional Powers
THE AFRICAN RED SEA TRAP: Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia Caught Between Regional Powers Core thesis: The Horn of Africa is becoming a chessboard of "multipolar proxy games"—but the participating states are not passive pawns. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Türkiye, Iran, Israel, the United States, and Russia each project interests here, yet local actors also use great-power competition to advance their own agendas. The result: a complex system in which external powers provide resources, but local actors decide how they are used. The key to understanding this system is not "who controls whom behind the scenes," but "who is using whose money to do their own thing." --- HOOK On 4 October 2026, El Alamein, Egypt. Four presidents stood side by side: Sisi of Egypt, Isaias of Eritrea, Mohamud of Somalia, and Burhan, Chairman of Sudan's Sovereignty Council. They issued a joint statement—on Red Sea governance, national sovereignty, and water rights. Three ...