{"id":837254,"date":"2026-10-05T15:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=837254"},"modified":"2026-10-05T13:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T17:37:10","slug":"egypt-eritrea-somalia-and-sudan-say-red-sea-governance-belongs-to-littoral-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/837254","title":{"rendered":"Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan say Red Sea governance belongs to littoral states"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eritrean<\/p>\n

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud shake hands during bilateral talks in Alamein on the margins of the four-country summit, 5 October 2026 (Yemane G. Meskel \/ @hawelti, via X)<\/em><\/p>\n

The leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan said in a joint declaration after a Sunday summit in New Alamein City that freedom of navigation must be respected and that governance of the Red Sea is the exclusive responsibility of the littoral states. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi hosted Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council. BBC Amharic reported the four countries’ statement on Monday, and Al Jazeera carried the same summit outcome against the backdrop of escalating war inside Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

The Egyptian presidency published the New Alamein Joint Declaration dated 4 October 2026. In that text the four leaders affirmed the principle of freedom of navigation and said security and governance of the Red Sea should remain with coastal states. They also stressed international law on transboundary rivers, including the Nile, citing the principle of avoiding harm and cooperation through prior notification, consultation and consensus. They rejected what they called any unilateral measures that harm the existing water uses of the two downstream Nile states. Egypt and Sudan have long disputed Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam; Ethiopia says the dam is lawful use of its water resources and denies lasting harm to downstream countries.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera reported that the Red Sea language appeared to push back against landlocked Ethiopia’s pursuit of sovereign sea access and a naval presence. The same declaration backed Somalia’s territorial integrity and rejected recognition of Somaliland, which Mogadishu regards as part of its territory. It also supported Sudan’s unity and national institutions and called for political and peaceful solutions to regional conflicts, including Sudan’s civil war. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Mogadishu does not object to Ethiopia securing commercial access through Somali ports if that is agreed with Somalia.<\/p>\n

On X, Eritrea’s information minister Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) posted the full El-Alamein Joint Declaration on Sunday evening with a link to Shabait, Eritrea’s information ministry site, and later wrote that President Isaias Afwerki had met General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Alamein on the margins of the summit and, on Monday morning, had met Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for talks that stressed Somalia’s territorial integrity and rejected external interference. In a longer Monday post, Yemane answered Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry reply to the declaration, saying Ethiopia already enjoys commercial access to Horn ports but that the Prosperity Party government had chosen “an agenda of aggression and war against Eritrea to ‘acquire sovereign access to the sea’,” and that Ethiopia’s claim that geographic proximity entitles it to the rights of littoral states was, in his words, “too ludicrous and hollow in purely legal terms to merit response.” That is an Eritrean official claim on X, not independent verification of Ethiopia’s intent. Alula Frezghi (@AlulaFre), writing in replies under Yemane’s declaration post, said the text places Eritrea as a sovereign Red Sea littoral state at the center of a Red Sea-Horn framework and that the declaration affirms that Red Sea governance belongs to its littoral states. Former Egyptian assistant foreign minister Hussein Haridy told Arab News the gathering was “not a summit directed against any third party” but a consultative meeting without a formal agenda; Rakha Ahmed Hassan, another former Egyptian assistant foreign minister, told the same outlet that Egypt “respects the sovereignty of all nations and does not interfere in internal affairs,” describing Ethiopian accusations against Cairo as baseless. RFI’s Cairo correspondent Alexandre Buccianti framed the communiqu\u00e9 around “principes de bon voisinage” and “non-ing\u00e9rence,” and said the Nile passage targets Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam. Prominent Egyptian analyst Abdalla Senawy, quoted by The National, said unrest inside Ethiopia had given Cairo’s political narrative “strength and credibility that it has been missing.” Searches of Facebook for Alamein, El Alamein and the Arabic \u0627\u0644\u0639\u0644\u0645\u064a\u0646 returned no readable posts. Those X posts and interviews are open-source and official commentary, not on-the-ground shipping eyewitness accounts.<\/p>\n

The summit came days after Ethiopia and Eritrea severed diplomatic relations and after Ethiopia and Egypt expelled each other’s diplomats. Ethiopian officials have accused Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan of backing the armed alliance fighting the federal government; officials from those countries have denied involvement. El-Sisi said earlier on Sunday that cross-border challenges required “a dialogue, not confrontation,” Al Jazeera reported. Al Jazeera also cited him under the spelling Yemane Gebremeskel, writing that he said on X that Addis Ababa was trying to create a pretext for attacking Eritrea. The four leaders also agreed to establish a follow-up mechanism and to hold further consultations periodically, according to summaries of the declaration published by regional outlets including SUNA and Shabait.<\/p>\n

Bab el-Mandeb, the narrow strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, remains a chokepoint for ships sailing between Asia, the Middle East and Europe via the Suez Canal. Shipping insurers and naval risk bulletins have for months treated Red Sea passages as higher-risk after Houthi attacks from Yemen. A diplomatic alignment that reserves Red Sea governance for coastal states, issued while Ethiopia fights a multi-front war and presses for dependable sea access, sharpens the stakes for Djibouti, Assab, Berbera and any future commercial port deals Ethiopia may seek under other countries’ sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Ethiopian government forces and allied fighters entered Mekelle on Saturday after the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said it had temporarily left the regional capital, and federal troops were patrolling the city on Sunday as the New Alamein summit closed. Al Jazeera noted that the joint text was issued as fighting escalated between federal forces and a seven-group armed alliance that includes the TPLF. Ethiopia has accused Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan of supporting that alliance; all three have denied the charge.<\/p>\n

BBC Amharic placed the Nile clauses against fifteen years of incomplete GERD talks among Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. Egypt wants a binding legal agreement on dam water volumes and release rules. Ethiopia says the dam does not impose lasting harm on downstream states and that it will use its natural resources fairly. By adding Eritrea and Somalia to a four-way text that rejects unilateral Nile measures and reserves Red Sea governance for coastal states, Cairo widened the diplomatic table beyond the three Nile riparians that have argued over the dam for years.<\/p>\n

Almost all of Ethiopia’s seaborne imports and exports still move through Djibouti. Disruptions at Bab el-Mandeb raise freight costs on that corridor. Commercial access talks with Somalia, including President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s recent offer of two or three Somali ports under Somali sovereignty, and older tension over Assab, sit inside the same search for dependable gateways. Under a rule that leaves Red Sea governance to coastal states alone, landlocked Ethiopia would have no seat where those rules are set, even though a substantial share of Ethiopia’s own trade cargo still moves on ships that use those waters.<\/p>\n

On Monday Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry answered without naming the four Alamein states, saying Ethiopia is the source of the Abay and remains barely 30 miles from the Red Sea coast, and that geographic facts cannot be altered by political rhetoric or coercive measures. Open-source monitors have tracked military and maritime activity on both shores of Bab el-Mandeb as Houthi operations and Horn politics overlap. The New Alamein declaration does not mention Houthis or Aspides by name; it asserts that coastal states alone should govern the Red Sea. That claim now sits beside Ethiopia’s Monday reply that geography and history still tie Addis Ababa to the same sea.<\/p>\n

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