The Horn of Africa Crisis the West is getting completely wrong

When we say the Horn of Africa, which countries are we talking about?

I can take that one given that I'm a geography professor.

So generally what we're speaking about here is, of course, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and increasingly people also include Sudan and South Sudan, of course, Kenya on occasion, and Uganda also on occasion.

So basically it is countries that border the Red Sea.

It has a very distinctive horn shape, which is one of the reasons it's called the Horn.

But I would say that the countries that people seem most interested in are the countries where we're seeing pretty significant, often perpetual geopolitical moves and conflict.

And in this region that would effectively mean both Ethiopia and Sudan, which is why they're represented here today with both Jalale and Nuhad, and troublemakers like, uh, Eritrea.

But we will also s- of course speak about Somalia, given that there was opposition problems with the government in Mogadishu over the last few days.

That's of course, a conflict that's been ongoing now for several decades.

But that's generally what people are talking about and why it's a big concern.

And as far as the strategic importance of the region, when we've said we've mentioned it in passing, it was not just randomly come up, right? We are discussing all sorts of other bits and bobs that are in the news, and there is a, a relevance to the Horn in those.

What is the strategic importance of this region?

The strategic importance is in part these very important choke points where the Horn has a very significant influence over.

So it's called the Bab-el-Mandeb.

And Yemen is incredibly close to the Horn in Somalia, and so that route of course up to the Suez Canal, that important region, of course Saudi Arabia is on one side with Yemen and then Ethiopia, Djibouti, et cetera.

Djibouti has several bases in it.

In fact, the, the very fact that many countries have based themselves in Djibouti should underscore the importance of this area strategically for the global security, but also trade security.

But there's also the problem that this incredibly strategic and geopolitically important zone in Africa is rife with conflicts that tend to last decades and shape-shift, and they're incredibly flexible to the actual leadership of countries.

It has been in kind of perpetual conflict for many decades, you know, even far longer than Somalia itself has been in conflict.

So it's an area that is both complex and important.

And so I'd be interested in everybody's view on this next one because as experts on this, why is it that you think people know so little about what is going on in these countries?

From my perspective, especially when we talk about Sudan, first of all, it's always seen as this very complicated situation compared to other conflicts where you can describe them in, let's say, two, three sentences.

Here we would have to talk for an hour to describe just one conflict, because it usually starts with the outside two parties, but then it grows and involves many more actors, whether they're local or regional.

And that's the situation currently in most of these conflicts and potential conflicts as well in the region.

So I guess that's why people think of it as this very complex web and just move away from trying to explain it because it is quite complicated given the different intertwined alliances and rivalries.

When we say the Horn of Africa, which countries are we talking about?

I can take that one given that I'm a geography professor.

So generally what we're speaking about here is, of course, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and increasingly people also include Sudan and South Sudan, of course, Kenya on occasion, and Uganda also on occasion.

So basically it is countries that border the Red Sea.

It has a very distinctive horn shape, which is one of the reasons it's called the Horn.

But I would say that the countries that people seem most interested in are the countries where we're seeing pretty significant, often perpetual geopolitical moves and conflict.

And in this region that would effectively mean both Ethiopia and Sudan, which is why they're represented here today with both Jalale and Nuhad, and troublemakers like, uh, Eritrea.

But we will also s- of course speak about Somalia, given that there was opposition problems with the government in Mogadishu over the last few days.

That's of course, a conflict that's been ongoing now for several decades.

But that's generally what people are talking about and why it's a big concern.

And as far as the strategic importance of the region, when we've said we've mentioned it in passing, it was not just randomly come up, right? We are discussing all sorts of other bits and bobs that are in the news, and there is a, a relevance to the Horn in those.

What is the strategic importance of this region?

The strategic importance is in part these very important choke points where the Horn has a very significant influence over.

So it's called the Bab-el-Mandeb.

And Yemen is incredibly close to the Horn in Somalia, and so that route of course up to the Suez Canal, that important region, of course Saudi Arabia is on one side with Yemen and then Ethiopia, Djibouti, et cetera.

Djibouti has several bases in it.

In fact, the, the very fact that many countries have based themselves in Djibouti should underscore the importance of this area strategically for the global security, but also trade security.

But there's also the problem that this incredibly strategic and geopolitically important zone in Africa is rife with conflicts that tend to last decades and shape-shift, and they're incredibly flexible to the actual leadership of countries.

It has been in kind of perpetual conflict for many decades, you know, even far longer than Somalia itself has been in conflict.

So it's an area that is both complex and important.

And so I'd be interested in everybody's view on this next one because as experts on this, why is it that you think people know so little about what is going on in these countries?

From my perspective, especially when we talk about Sudan, first of all, it's always seen as this very complicated situation compared to other conflicts where you can describe them in, let's say, two, three sentences.

Here we would have to talk for an hour to describe just one conflict, because it usually starts with the outside two parties, but then it grows and involves many more actors, whether they're local or regional.

And that's the situation currently in most of these conflicts and potential conflicts as well in the region.

So I guess that's why people think of it as this very complex web and just move away from trying to explain it because it is quite complicated given the different intertwined alliances and rivalries.