In this video explainer produced by The Times (UK newspaper) I provide analysis on the conflicts in East Africa and the role being played by major Gulf/Middle East powers in pushing the region to a potentially all encompassing, devastating all out war.
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In this video explainer produced by The Times (UK newspaper) I provide analysis on the conflicts in East Africa and the role being played by major Gulf/Middle East powers in pushing the region to a potentially all encompassing, devastating all out war.
At the root of it all, jostling between Riyadh + Cairo on one side & Abu Dhabi on the other, for control of the Bab El Mandeb oil corridor. To secure influence over it, the UAE is urging Ethiopia towards war with Eritrea.
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Two other experts appear with me, and we explain how the race to secure the Bab El Mandeb, is carving East Africa apart.
The region has the world's bloodiest ongoing conflict still raging on in Sudan, and reels from the Tigray war, the deadliest conflict of the 21st century that killed half a million people in Ethiopia and ended in 2022.
With both countries becoming proxy battlegrounds for regional powers, a new conflict could engulf Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan.
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Dear friends, I hope one thing is clear from this: the whole "Africans are war prone" trope needs to go.
Yes, the continent remains cursed with leaders who are willing to kill before making the slightest compromise. However, East Africa is some exhibit: the worst mass murderers and warlords have wealthy sponsors in the Middle East fattening their coffers. Millions of people have no say in what happens, and are at the mercy of decision makers in faraway MENA capitals, chasing geopolitical Ws.
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Just a fistful of Westerners is emerged from the colonial misconcept of considering Africa as a whole, while it is a very complex and articulated continent, often difficult to be understood without a knowledge of the countless different African cultures.
