Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan Unite in Joint Declaration as Ethiopia's Civil War Intensifies

Four African heads of state have issued a rare joint declaration calling for peaceful political resolutions to the overlapping conflicts destabilising the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region, as fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region escalated sharply over the weekend.

The declaration was released on Sunday following a quadrilateral summit hosted in New Alamein City, Egypt, bringing together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The four leaders framed their statement as a push for dialogue over confrontation at a moment when multiple armed conflicts are converging across the region.

Speaking earlier on Sunday, el-Sisi said the cross-border challenges facing the assembled nations required "a dialogue, not confrontation" — a message that appeared to set the tone for the final communiqué. The Egyptian leader has repeatedly positioned Cairo as a diplomatic counterweight to Addis Ababa in recent years, particularly over Nile water disputes.

The joint declaration threw its weight behind Sudan's military-led government and urged a political process owned and led by Sudanese parties themselves. Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, and Sudan and Ethiopia have repeatedly accused each other of meddling in the war — allegations both sides deny.

Beyond Sudan, the declaration signalled a coordinated stance against several Ethiopian policies, underlining the widening gulf between Addis Ababa and its neighbours. The leaders said control of the Red Sea should remain in the hands of its coastal states, a direct counter to landlocked Ethiopia's long-running campaign for sovereign sea access and a naval footprint. Ethiopia has argued that securing a port and maritime presence is an existential economic necessity, but its neighbours view those ambitions with deep suspicion.

Somalia's President Mohamud sought to soften that position in comments to Al Jazeera on Saturday, saying Mogadishu does not object to Ethiopia obtaining commercial access through Somali ports — provided the arrangement is negotiated directly with his government. His remarks suggested Somalia is open to a pragmatic deal even as it joins the broader regional pushback against unilateral Ethiopian moves.

The summit also waded into the Nile dam dispute. Egypt and Sudan, which have long contested Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, warned against what they described as "unilateral measures" that harm downstream states. Both countries have argued for years that the massive dam on the Blue Nile threatens their water supplies, while Ethiopia insists the project is vital for its development and power needs.

The timing of the declaration was significant. It came as Ethiopian federal forces and a seven-group armed alliance, which includes the Tigray People's Liberation Front, fought fierce battles in the north. Government and allied troops retook the city of Mekelle on Sunday after the TPLF announced it had "temporarily moved out of" the regional capital to "operate from somewhere else" — a dramatic reversal in a region that had enjoyed a fragile peace since a brutal two-year war ended in 2022.

According to Ethiopian state media, former Tigray interim leader Abraham Belay said on Sunday that the federal government is preparing a new temporary administration for Tigray and hopes to hold regional elections within months. The announcement points to Addis Ababa's intent to reassert full administrative control over the region rather than return to the power-sharing arrangements that followed the 2022 peace deal.

Ethiopian officials have accused neighbouring Eritrea of directly backing the rebel alliance now fighting the federal government. Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel rejected that charge in a post on X on Sunday, saying Addis Ababa was manufacturing a pretext to attack Eritrea. The exchange underscored how quickly the conflict could spill across borders, drawing in regional powers with their own grievances.

Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan have all been accused by Ethiopia of supporting the armed alliance against its government — claims officials from all three countries have denied. The denials have done little to ease tensions, and the new declaration is likely to be read in Addis Ababa as further evidence of a coordinated front forming against it.

For Egypt, the summit offered a platform to consolidate alliances around shared concerns: the Nile dam, Red Sea security and Sudan's war. For Eritrea, it provided diplomatic cover amid accusations of proxy involvement in Tigray. For Somalia, it balanced solidarity with its neighbours against its own interest in negotiating port access with Ethiopia. For Sudan's army chief, it delivered international backing at a moment when his forces remain locked in a costly civil war.

Analysts say the four-nation statement is unlikely to immediately alter conditions on the ground in Tigray or Sudan, but it signals a hardening of regional alignments. The push for political solutions contrasts with the reality of advancing government forces in Ethiopia and continued combat in Sudan, where neither side has shown willingness to negotiate.

In a region where conflicts increasingly intersect — from the Nile to the Red Sea to the Tigray highlands — the declaration amounts to a collective attempt to set terms for how disputes should be resolved. Whether it translates into diplomatic pressure or deeper confrontation will depend largely on how Addis Ababa responds in the coming weeks.