CAIRO – The conference “Horn of Africa Conflicts: Implications for Regional and Egyptian Security,” kicked off Thursday morning in Cairo, with the participation of Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affair Ambassador Ihab Awad.
Organised by the Egyptian Centre for Strategic Studies (ECSS), the one-day conference is meant to provide an in-depth interpretation of the repercussions of the Horn of Africa conflicts to provide a vision on means of collectively confronting this complex regional situation.
The three-session event brings together a host of experts in African affairs and international relations and representatives of Egyptian and foreign think tanks.
The conference’s framework paper released by the ECSS emphasised the importance of anticipating the repercussions of these conflicts in the Horn of Africa on Egyptian interests given that this region constitutes a meeting point for many Egyptian strategic interests, namely water security, amid the continued faltering negotiations regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The paper highlighted the correlation between this region and Egyptian maritime security, with the Horn of Africa and Bab al-Mandab Strait constituting strategic importance to the southern entrance to the Red Sea leading to the Suez Canal.
