Leaders from Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan convened in the coastal city of New Alamein, Egypt, to issue a high-stakes joint declaration addressing profound security crises, civil strife, and escalating geopolitical rifts across East Africa and the Horn of Africa.
The quadrilateral summit brought together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The meeting was orchestrated to address interlocking regional destabilizations, notably the brutal civil war in Sudan and soaring friction with Ethiopia.
Opening the discussions, President el-Sisi emphasized that cross-border challenges and transnational resources demand cooperative governance and open dialogue rather than unilateral confrontation. The collective declaration served as a direct counter-weight to policies pursued by Addis Ababa, signaling deepening strategic realignments in the wider Red Sea corridor.
A cornerstone of the joint declaration was the explicit assertion that control and security of the Red Sea must remain strictly under the purview of its littoral states. Observers noted this position was formulated in direct response to landlocked Ethiopia’s pursuit of sovereign coastline access and a permanent naval footprint, moves that have heavily strained relations with neighboring coastal nations.
While Somali President Mohamud reiterated that Mogadishu remains open to facilitating commercial access for Ethiopia through formal, mutually agreed channels, the collective communique heavily criticized unilateral actions that bypass national sovereignty. Furthermore, Egypt and Sudan—long locked in complex disputes with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile—warned against measures that threaten downstream water security.
The summit also delivered staunch backing for Sudan’s military-led government, calling for an inclusive political process steered entirely by domestic Sudanese actors to resolve the devastating conflict between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The diplomatic alignment coincided with a major escalation of fighting inside Ethiopia, where federal forces and a seven-group armed alliance—including the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)—clashed intensely. Ethiopian federal troops and allied units successfully recaptured the Alula Aba Nega Airport and re-entered Tigray’s regional capital of Mekelle, following a tactical withdrawal announced by the TPLF. While Addis Ababa has accused Egypt, Eritrea, and Sudan of backing the insurgent alliance, Asmara and its summit partners have consistently rejected those claims, leaving the Horn of Africa navigating a fragile and deeply polarized security landscape.
