World

Ethiopia raises the stakes with latest Red Sea gamble

In early October, Abiy Ahmed began a new five-year term as Ethiopia’s prime minister by returning to a demand that his landlocked country must secure access to the Red Sea. He framed the objective as a matter of national security and promised to pursue it through give-and-take. The demand came shortly after the Egypt-sponsored El-Alamein Joint Declaration that seeks to leave Red Sea governance exclusively to its littoral states. It complicates Abiy’s strategy and ambitions because Addis Ababa is