Middle East and Africa | Ports in a storm

Ethiopia’s prime minister wants a Red Sea harbour

Abiy Ahmed’s push for access to the sea has rattled his neighbours

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed looks observes a parade of members of Ethiopian National Defense Force
Image: AFP

Nerves are jangling once again in the Horn of Africa, just a year after the end of a brutal civil war in Ethiopia that led to the deaths of perhaps 385,000-600,000 people. Now foreign diplomats and analysts fear that in his bid to get a port on the Red Sea, Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, risks sparking another conflict, this time next to one of the world’s busiest shipping routes (see map).

Image: The Economist

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Ports in a storm"

Too good to be true: The contradiction at the heart of the world economy

From the November 4th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Middle East and Africa

The ICC’s threat to arrest Binyamin Netanyahu has shocked Israel

America and Israel have reacted with outrage at the implied equivalence between Israel and Hamas

The death of Iran’s president will spark a high-stakes power struggle

Amid a regional war, a fight at home between the clerics and military looms


The revolt against Binyamin Netanyahu

His war cabinet and generals want a new plan—and a new boss