Archives African Woes - Page 5 of 9 - New Eastern Outlook

The already tense situation in the Horn of Africa has escalated sharply since the beginning of the year. On 1 January, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a memorandum of understanding with the president of the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, under which Ethiopia will receive a 50-year lease on a 20-kilometre stretch of the Red Sea coast near the port of Berbera for the establishment of a commercial hub and, in the future, a military base…

Amidst the world’s focus on the Israel-Hamas war, tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia are simmering. Escalating tensions between the two countries have added to the political instability of the region. Recently, the two countries locked horns over the claims of Somalia, at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa – the capital of Ethiopia, that the Ethiopian administration attempted to refrain President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud from entering the venue…

Affected by the rise of terrorist movements and the increasing number of flashpoints in the region, ECOWAS seems to be struggling to maintain its homeostasis on the West African political scene. The withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali from the Alliance of Sahel States is both a thunderbolt for ECOWAS and the creation of a pole of rivalry and self-determination for its peoples, turning the region into a zone of competition and confrontation between Russia, a member of the BRICS alliance, and France…