Egypt Seeks to Contain Ethiopia’s ‘Threats’ through ‘Mogadishu Shipment’, Meeting in New York

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea meet in New York. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea meet in New York. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
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Egypt Seeks to Contain Ethiopia’s ‘Threats’ through ‘Mogadishu Shipment’, Meeting in New York

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea meet in New York. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea meet in New York. (Egyptian Foreign Ministry)

Egypt is seeking to contain “potential threats from Ethiopia” over their disputes about the Grand Renaissance dam on the Nile River with the tensions already spilling over into the region.

Somalia accused Ethiopia of smuggling weapons on Tuesday amid fears that arms going into the conflict-riven Horn of Africa nation could end up in the hands of insurgents.

The neighbors traded barbs a day after an Egyptian warship unloaded heavy weaponry in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, the second shipment since a security pact in August.

Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops in Somalia to fight al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, has fallen out with the Mogadishu government over its plans to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland in exchange for possible recognition of its sovereignty.

The spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt, which has quarreled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa's construction of the vast hydro dam on the Nile River.

Last week, Somalia accused Ethiopia of shipping arms to the semi-autonomous state of Puntland. Somalia has threatened to expel Ethiopia's troops by the end of the year if the port deal was not scrapped.

In New York, the Egyptian, Somali and Eritrean foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to coordinate “on the highest levels” given the tensions.

Experts told Asharq Al-Awsat that the growing cooperation between Egypt and Somalia and the New York meeting have effectively formed a “coalition” against Ethiopia’s threats in the Horn of Africa.

They said these developments are “messages to Ethiopia and a preemptive step” that would prevent it from imposing any form of status quo.

They did express their concerns that Ethiopia would increase its support to separatists to spark a new crisis in the region.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Monday the shipment to Mogadishu aims to support Somalia and help it in its efforts “to achieve security and stability, fight terrorist and consolidate its territorial integrity.”

The shipment is in line with a military cooperation protocol that was signed with Somalia in August, it stressed.

Egypt will continue to play a “pivotal role in supporting Somalia develop national capabilities to achieve the aspirations of its people for security and stability,” added the ministry.

On Monday’s meeting in New York, it said it “reflected the joint coordination” between Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea and the “political will of their three countries to achieve joint goals and interests, preserve regional stability and respect Somalia sovereignty.”

The FMs agreed to continue close coordination and cooperation on all issues of common concern.

International relations expert Nabil Najmeddine noted that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, not the army, made the announcement about the arms shipment.

“This is a message to the outside that Egypt will continue to support Somalia, that it is committed to the defense protocol and that it will not tolerate any threat to its national security,” he said.

“Egypt has the right to send the shipment to protect its national security,” he added, noting that Ethiopia’s agreement with Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland to lease its main port could in the future undermine global trade and the Suez Canal. The agreement was signed in January and rejected by Somalia.

“Egypt’s growing cooperation with Ethiopia’s neighbors carries several messages,” he remarked.

Landlocked Ethiopia has for years sought access to sea channels to meet its economic ambitions. Currently, it relies on neighboring Djibouti’s port for 95 percent of its marine trade.

Ethiopia has in the past sought to complete agreements with Eritrea, Sudan and Kenya over the use of their seaports. All failed for various reasons, such as war and coups in Sudan.

The agreement grants Ethiopia 20-km access to the Red Sea, specifically in the Berbera port, for a 50-year period. In return, Ethiopia will recognize Somaliland as a republic. The region has not been internationally recognized since it broke away from Somalia in 1991.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".