Over the past few years, Djibouti has emerged as an increasingly important hub for weapons trans-shipment to armed groups in the region
The reluctance of western and other powers to act against Djibouti’s increasing arms trafficking activities poses an existential threat to the security of the Horn of Africa and imperils ongoing efforts to end long-running conflicts in the region.
EXX Africa published a special report on the arms trade in the Horn of Africa. The trade of illegal weapons in the Horn of Africa remains highly lucrative and is comprehensively entwined with transnational terrorist groups, drug smuggling, and the conflict in nearby Yemen. Continue reading Djibouti and The Growth of Arms Trade in the Horn of Africa→
The attempt of the Sudanese president to engage with rival regional interests in a bid to stay in power might fail.
Worried about his two ICC arrest warrants, President Bashir has employed every trick to ensure the survival of his presidency. But his recent tactics of manipulating regional and international rivalries are actually damaging Sudan’s national interests as they are slowly turning the country into a battlefield between rival powers.
Sudan’s political crisis is sliding into a dangerous phase. Its economy is on the verge of collapse. The price of food and other basic commodities is rising by the day, worsening living conditions for ordinary Sudanese and stirring growing discontent in the country. Continue reading Sudan’s Bashir is Playing a Dangerous Game→
The United Nations migration agency reports that thousands of Ethiopian migrants continue to make the perilous journey to war-torn Yemen in search of better economic opportunities despite the dangerous security conditions.
Amid a growing problem of malnutrition and cholera outbreaks caused by the Saudi-led war on Yemen, the two branches of the northern Yemeni government have split and are fighting one another.
The war in Yemen already drains the Saudis militarily, politically and strategically. May be it’s time for the Kingdom and its allies to find a face-saving way to end the costly conflict.
Saudi Arabia’s Vietnam? All sides of the conflict are starting to realize that after more than two years of violence, the military solution is no longer an option and they need more alternatives like a political solution because no one afford to see this conflict continue. (GETTY IMAGE)
In Geneva, Mohammad Ali Alnsour, the Chief of the UN Human Rights Office for the Middle East and North Africa not only called the conflict in Yemen a man-made catastrophe, but called it “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world as a result of combination of conflict, cholera, and food insecurity.” Continue reading Are Saudis Looking for Way Out of Yemen?→
Attack on boat near Bab al-Mandeb Strait leaves dozens of Somali refugees dead.
A boat packed with Somali migrants came under attack overnight off Yemen’s coast close to a strategic Red Sea strait. 77 survivors were pulled out of the water. (Photo: Abduljabbar Zeyad/Reuters)
Dozens of Somali refugees have been killed off the coast of Hodeidah in Yemen after a helicopter attacked the boat they were travelling in, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The U.S. would want better relations with Eritrea if its goals in this part of the region is to reduce the threat from terrorism and terrorist groups and possibly to end the conflict in Yemen.
Instability and terrorism in the Horn of Africa, along with a massive conflict on the other side of the Red Sea in Yemen, threaten U.S. interests in the region.
Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, Bronwyn Bruton, writes in a recent report, “the United States could find itself facing instability and perhaps a terror threat on both sides of the Mandeb Strait [separating Yemen from Eritrea and Djibouti], which is a critical chokepoint for the $700 billion … of trade passing annually between the European Union (EU) and Asia.” Continue reading Eritrea: A Potential U.S. Counter-Terror Partner→
Just when you thought the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region could not churn out any more crises… This time two giants are locking horns over conflicting geopolitical ambitions, or rather, Saudi Arabia might have overstepped one boundary too many against Egypt.
