Four countries — Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan — issued a joint statement calling for political solutions and peace amid escalating regional conflict, including Sudan's civil war and major fighting in Ethiopia.
The statement was released on Sunday after a meeting in the Egyptian city of New Alamein attended by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Earlier the same day, el-Sisi said cross-border challenges require “dialogue, not confrontation.”
The joint statement appeared to push back against several policies Ethiopia has pursued in recent years, underscoring deepening rifts between Addis Ababa and its neighbors.
The text backs Sudan's army-led government and calls for a political process led by Sudanese parties. Sudan has been at war since April 2023 between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sudan and Ethiopia have each accused the other of meddling in Sudan's civil war.
The statement also said control of the Red Sea must rest with coastal states, seemingly a response to landlocked Ethiopia's pursuit of sovereign sea access and a naval presence.
On Saturday, Somali President Mohamud told Al Jazeera that Mogadishu does not object to Ethiopia having commercial access through Somali ports, provided Somalia agrees.
Egypt and Sudan, long at odds with Ethiopia over its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile, warned against what they call “unilateral measures” that harm downstream countries.
The joint statement came as fighting escalates in Ethiopia between federal forces and an armed alliance of seven groups, including the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) — the force that fought a brutal two-year war with the government that ended in a fragile 2022 peace deal.
On Sunday, government forces and allies retook the city of Mekelle after the TPLF said it had “temporarily withdrawn” from the Tigray regional capital to “operate from elsewhere.”
According to Ethiopian state media, former Tigray interim administration leader Abraham Belay said on Sunday that the federal government is preparing a new interim administration for the region and hopes to hold local elections in the coming months.
Ethiopian officials accuse neighboring Eritrea of directly backing the rebel alliance in Ethiopia's civil war. Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel said in a post on X on Sunday that Addis Ababa is trying to create a pretext to attack Eritrea.
