Somali National News Agency
So
Ar
Search
  • Home
  • Local News
    Local NewsShow More
    Somali Minister of Ports Joins Global Leaders at Istanbul Transport Connectivity Forum
    June 27, 2025
    Djibouti Erupts in Grand Celebration Marking 47 Years of Independence
    June 27, 2025
    President Hassan Sheikh Sends Congratulatory Message to Djibouti, Reaffirming Strong Bilateral Ties
    June 27, 2025
    Djibouti Marks 48th Anniversary of Independence Amidst Celebrations and Historical Reflection
    June 27, 2025
    Joint Somalia Operation Decimates Al-Shabaab Leadership Hub and Arms Cache in Aden Yabaal
    June 27, 2025
  • World News
    World NewsShow More
    Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys hundreds of National Guard troops
    June 9, 2025
    31 Palestinians are killed heading to a Gaza aid site, witnesses say. Israel denies responsibility
    June 7, 2025
    Hajj Season 1446 AH: Synergy Between Technology and Humanity in Serving the Guests of Allah
    June 6, 2025
    Machine Gun, AK-47 Rifles Recovered as 4 Al-Shabaab Terrorists are Killed in Garissa
    June 3, 2025
    Israel kills 2 Gaza aid seekers as UN warns of ‘catastrophic hunger’
    May 31, 2025
  • Articles
    ArticlesShow More
    Reviving Somalia’s Tourism and Hospitality Sector: A Path Toward Economic Resilience and Cultural Renaissance
    June 21, 2025
    Somalia’s Strategic Path in a Resurgent China-Africa Partnership
    June 12, 2025
    Remarks on Somalia’s participation in the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo
    June 13, 2025
    Hajj Season 1446 AH: Synergy Between Technology and Humanity in Serving the Guests of Allah
    June 6, 2025
    Wind power turbines line a mountain range in Ji’an, Jiangxi province, July 9, 2022.
    What China’s climate action means for the planet’s future?
    June 5, 2025
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    Somalia Unveils the Blueprint for a Modern and Sustainable Mogadishu
    December 21, 2024
    Djibouti Launches $57.4 Million Youth Entrepreneurship Project to Combat Climate Change
    November 25, 2024
    FM meets Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia
    October 28, 2024
    President Hassan Sheikh Inaugurates New LPG Storage Center in Mogadishu
    May 12, 2024
    Collaboration of ICT transformation for digital Infrastructure
    October 24, 2023
  • Sports
    SportsShow More
    Mogadishu Stadium to Host Star-Studded Match Featuring Somali Legends and International Football Icons
    May 27, 2025
    Arsenal held at Brighton while Man City bounce-back continues
    January 5, 2025
    Galmudug wins the Inter-State Football Tournament
    January 29, 2024
    Somalia set for two int’l friendlies ahead of WC qualifier clashes against Algeria and Uganda
    October 10, 2023
    Chicago woman, 104, skydives from plane, aiming for record as the world’s oldest skydiver
    October 3, 2023
  • Tenders
    TendersShow More
    Quay Renovation Works – Supply and Installation of Fenders and Bollards
    April 11, 2025
Reading: Egypt and Eritrea explore possible military deal amid regional tension
Share
Font ResizerAa
Somali National News AgencySomali National News Agency
  • SOMALI
  • ARABIC
Search
  • Home
  • Local News
  • World News
  • Articles
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Tenders
Follow US
©2023 || All rights reserved SONNA
Somali National News Agency > Blog > World News > Egypt and Eritrea explore possible military deal amid regional tension
World News

Egypt and Eritrea explore possible military deal amid regional tension

By Osman
Last updated: September 17, 2024
7 Min Read
Share

Egypt and Eritrea are exploring a possible military co-operation deal and intelligence sharing as they seek to cement already close ties, according to sources.

The sources told The National that such an accord would also include outlining bilateral steps to protect Red Sea shipping, which has been severely disrupted by attacks from Iran-backed rebels in Yemen carried out in solidarity with the Palestinians during Israel’s 11-month war in Gaza.

Egypt is also discussing with Eritrea possible mediation by Cairo to end decades-old animosity between Asmara and the separatist rebels of Tigray in neighbouring Ethiopia, where the Tigray People’s Liberation Front poses the most potent threat to the rule of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Mr Abiy has been an anathema in Egypt because of what Cairo views as his intransigence in more than a decade of fruitless negotiations to resolve the two nations’ dispute over a giant Nile dam that Ethiopia is building, which is seen by Cairo as an existential threat to its life-and-death share of the river’s water. Addis Ababa has in turn accused Egypt of supporting anti-government groups to destabilise Ethiopia.

The discussions between Egypt and Eritrea come amid a surprise visit to Asmara last weekend by Egyptian intelligence chief Gen Kamal Abbas, a confidant of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. The pair met Eritrea’s longtime leader Isaias Afwerki.

The Foreign Ministry on Saturday said the pair handed the Eritrean leader a message from Mr El Sisi on “bolstering and developing bilateral relations in all fields”.

“They also listened to President Afwerki’s views on developments in the Red Sea regarding the importance of finding the right circumstances to restore normal maritime shipping and international trade through the Bab Al Mandeb,” it said, referring to the narrow strait that links the Red and Arabian seas.

The Egyptians also heard the Eritrean leader’s views on developments in the Horn of Africa, the challenges faced in that region and methods for reinforcing security and stability there, it said.

Egypt and Eritrea together account for about 5,000km of Red Sea coastline, including the Egyptian shores of the gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, as well as 355 islands under Eritrean sovereignty. While Egypt controls the northern reaches of the Red Sea, including the Suez Canal that links to the Mediterranean, Eritrea is located close to the strategic Bab Al Mandeb strait.

The two have forged close ties in the 10 years since Mr El Sisi rose to power in the most populous Arab nation, with Mr Afwerki meeting the Egyptian President several times in recent years. They last met in Cairo in February, only three months after their previous meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“The primary aim of Egypt in the region is to curb Ethiopian influence in the Horn of Africa and put pressure on Abiy Ahmed’s government,” said one of the sources. “To boost co-operation with Eritrea is a huge step in that direction.”

A military co-operation agreement with Eritrea would be the latest deal of its kind to be struck between Cairo and countries in the Horn of Africa, East Africa or the Nile basin. These include Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Somalia.

Analysts have long suspected those deals are primarily designed to put pressure on Addis Ababa to show flexibility in its dispute with Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The latest military co-operation agreement between Egypt and its southern neighbours was signed last month with Somalia, which has traditionally been at odds with Ethiopia. Under the provisions of that deal, Egypt late last month airlifted arms, military hardware and troops to Somalia, deeply angering Ethiopia, which has warned that the move would undermine stability in the Horn of Africa and vowed not to stand idly by.

Eritrea, on the other hand, gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a decades-long civil war. The pair fought a ruinous war over a border dispute between 1998 and 2000; and although they have since made peace and fought together against Ethiopia’s Tigrayan rebels in 2020-2022, they remain rivals.

Somalia’s quarrel with Addis Ababa now is over a preliminary deal its landlocked neighbour signed this year with the breakaway territory of Somaliland to lease coastal land in exchange for possible recognition of its independence from Somalia.

Somalia called the deal an assault on its sovereignty and said it would block it by all means necessary.

“Somalia and Ethiopia share a long-enduring animosity,” Somalia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ali Mohammed Omar told Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV network in an interview aired last week.

Asked how Somalia would respond if Ethiopia and Somaliland went ahead and implemented their agreement, he said: “That will be a declaration of war.”

Somalia has already threatened to send home an estimated 10,000 Ethiopian troops in Somalia as part of an African Union-mandated peacekeeping force if the deal is not cancelled.

For its part, Egypt said it planned to apply to the AU to be part of a new peacekeeping force in Somalia which, as the host nation, Somalia must approve.

If this comes to fruition, it could increase tensions. Already, the 17-month-old war in Sudan has driven more than two million people over the borders of that vast Afro-Arab nation. And in Ethiopia, ethnic divides appear to be ominously worsening and Somalia is faced with a constant threat from militant group Al Shabab.

Source: The National

Share This Article
Facebook Whatsapp Whatsapp Email Copy Link Print

MORE NEWS

Official Reopening of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives

CultureEducationLocal News
November 23, 2024

Kenya’s small farmers find respite in avocados amid changing climate

NAIROBI(SONNA) As crop diseases and pests rise in Kenya amid a rapidly changing climate that…

March 11, 2023

Al-Shabaab Mafia Inc.: The Groundbreaking Somali-Led Revelation That Shattered the Terrorist Group’s Secrecy

Editorial Review, SONNA — on Al-Shabaab Mafia Inc: The Book Al-Shabaab Swore to Burn Al-Shabaab…

June 28, 2025

Nimcaan Hilaac appointed to lead Waberi National Band

Mogadishu (SONNA)-Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E. Mohamed…

March 3, 2020

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Virus cases in Africa top 225,000

ADDIS ABABA(SONNA):As Africa grapples with the fast-spreading coronavirus, the number of cases spiked to 224,105, according to a Saturday update…

NewsWorld News
June 13, 2020

Kenya on high alert following terror attack In Uganda

NAIROBI (SONNA):Kenya is on high alert following recent bomb attacks in the neighboring Uganda which authorities there linked to terrorism.…

World News
October 27, 2021

Saudi Arabia reaffirms its stance on Palestine and Israel

Mogadishu, SONNA - The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement on the Arab-Israeli peace process, following the…

World News
February 7, 2024

2 dead in hot air balloon accident outside of Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (SONNA) — Two people died and a girl was injured after the hot air balloon they were riding…

World News
April 2, 2023

Somali National News Agency established in 1964. It is one of the main pillars of the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism.

  • Home
  • Local News
  • World News
  • Articles
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Tenders
  • SNTV
  • RADIO MOGADISHU
  • DALKA JOURNAL
  • TOURISM DEPARTMENT

Follow US: 

  • MoICT
  • VILLA SOMALIA
  • OPM SOMALIA

All rights reserved SONNA

©2023

Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?