A widening campaign of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea is forcing Washington to pay renewed attention to the African side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, where the Trump administration has quietly stepped up engagement with governments including Eritrea and Somalia.
The narrow waterway between Yemen and Djibouti forms the western gateway to the route linking the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal. With shipping also under pressure in the Strait of Hormuz, the risk of disruption at both ends of the Gulf’s oil export corridor has heightened concerns over global energy supplies and caused a spike in crude prices.
Against that backdrop, senior White House adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos met the foreign ministers of Somalia and Eritrea in Cairo this month, alongside Egyptian officials, to discuss security in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.
Cameron Hudson, a White House official during the George W. Bush administration, said African countries must not become another source of instability. “The US seems to be saying, ‘You can’t be helpful to us in the Red Sea, so let’s at least make you a neutral actor,’” he said.
