https://arab.news/pnfm8
The Horn of Africa is no longer a peripheral geography in regional equations, it has become one of the most sensitive arenas in the balance of power shaping the Middle East and the security of the Red Sea. What is unfolding in Sudan, what Ethiopia is pursuing in its search for maritime access and the chronic fragility within Somalia can no longer be treated as isolated domestic matters. These issues have become a direct extension of the contest over influence in the Red Sea — one of the world’s most vital arteries for trade and energy. From this vantage point emerges the Egyptian perspective, which views the region not as a field for competition but as a direct line of contact with its national security.
The most consequential shift in recent years has been the transformation of the Red Sea from a maritime corridor into a strategic security theater. Any disruption in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait or the Gulf of Aden immediately reverberates through the Suez Canal, global supply chains, insurance costs and energy markets. It is therefore hardly surprising that regional and international actors have intensified their involvement in the Horn of Africa — not only through investment and diplomacy but through security arrangements, military facilities, arms flows and local political networks.
