NAIROBI: The leaders of Egypt, Eritrea and Somalia pledged Thursday to work together on regional security at an unprecedented summit held against a backdrop of heightened tensions in the Horn of Africa.
Concerns about the stability of the volatile area have mounted over the war in Sudan, a controversial deal between Ethiopia and the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland, and the situation in the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthis have waged numerous attacks on vessels.
Thursday’s summit in Asmara signalled the forging of a new regional alliance in the Horn, with Ethiopia — Africa’s second-most populous nation — left out in the cold.
Relations have soured dramatically between Ethiopia and neighboring Somalia, which was enraged by the Somaliland maritime deal and has since moved closer to Addis Ababa’s longtime regional rival Cairo.
The three-way summit in Asmara was called by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and included his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia.
After their talks, the leaders issued a statement that was posted online by the Eritrean information ministry in which they pledged to bolster three-way ties in a bid to improve regional stability.
They said there needed to be “unequivocal respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the countries of the region,” without mentioning any nation by name.
The three also underlined the imperative of “confronting interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region under any pretext or justification; coordinating joint efforts to achieve regional stability and creating a conducive climate for joint and sustainable development.”
Turning specifically to Somalia, they agreed to deepen three-way cooperation to help the troubled nation “confront various internal and external challenges and to enable the Somali National Federal Army to confront terrorism in all its forms, protect its land and sea borders, and maintain its territorial integrity.”
The three also discussed the crisis in Sudan and the Red Sea, and agreed to set up a tripartite committee of their foreign ministers for “strategic cooperation in all fields.”
It was El-Sisi’s first visit to Asmara — and reportedly the first by an Egyptian president since a stop there by Hosni Mubarak in the early 1990s — although Isaias has visited Egypt before.
Mohamud though has made several trips to Eritrea, one of the most isolated states in the world.
Regional rivalries were laid bare after the January memorandum of understanding which would see Ethiopia, one of the biggest landlocked countries in the world, lease a stretch of coastline from Somaliland for a naval base and port.
Somalia — which like the rest of the world refuses to recognize Somaliland’s 1991 declaration of independence — angrily branded it an assault on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In response, Somalia signed a major military deal with Egypt in August, while Cairo pledged troops for a new African Union mission against the Al-Shabab jihadist group.
Cairo has also long been at odds with Addis Ababa, particularly over the vast Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, which it says threatens its vital water supply.
Relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara have also been deteriorating recently, even though Eritrean troops backed Ethiopian government forces in the brutal 2020-2022 war against Tigrayan rebels.
Analysts say Eritrea was not happy with the peace agreement between Addis Ababa and Asmara’s longstanding enemy the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and still has troops in parts of Tigray.
Last month Ethiopian Airlines said it was suspending flights to Asmara because of “difficult” operating conditions.
But at a press briefing Thursday, Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Nebiat Getachew described the relationship between Addis Ababa and Asmara as “peaceful” and said they enjoyed “good neighborliness and good friendship.”
Dubbed the “North Korea” of Africa, Eritrea formally declared independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after three decades of war and has since been ruled with an iron fist by Isaias.
Subsequent border disputes blew up into a war between 1998 and 2000, but two decades later the two countries reached a rapprochement, which earned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize.
