ED RAM/AFP via Getty Images
International law provides pathways for landlocked countries to access the sea but this depends almost entirely on striking deals with neighbours.
Djibouti is the main port for all foreign aid going to Ethiopia.
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Lack of sea access has constrained Ethiopia’s ability to cater for its large population.
Ethiopian refugees who fled the fighting in Tigray Region are pictured at Um Rakuba camp in Eastern Sudan.
Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images
The crisis in Tigray could have a spillover effect that will destabilise the Horn of Africa.
Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki in China in the 1960s. He is fifth from the left, rear row.
He’s a brooding, taciturn figure, who has dominated Eritrean politics since the 1970s, and there are few signs of an effective challenge to his rule.
An Eritrean migrant leaves a detention facility near Nitzana in the Negev Desert in Israel, near border with Egypt.
EPA-EFE/Jim Hollander
The flow of unaccompanied minors from Eritrea has become the subject of international concern.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s rise to power was not without challenges.
Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis
Ethiopia has gone through a series of changes that’s put the country on firm democratic footing.
Peace in the Horn of Africa could depend on how Ethiopia handles its reforms process.
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Tensions, both within Ethiopia and between Ethiopia and its neighbours, are rooted in history.
Eritrean refugees in Israel.
Rudychaimg/Wikimedia Commons
All Eritrean men between the ages of 18 – 50 have to serve in the army for more than 20 years, forcing thousands to flee. But things look set to change.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed greets supporters.
STR/EPA
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have improved thanks to efforts made by Ethiopia’s new premier.
Ethiopia and Eritrea could strike a peace deal.
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If peace is achieved between Ethiopia and Eritrea, it will help stabilise the Horn of Africa, and the broader East Africa region.
Demonstrators chant slogans while flashing the Oromo protest gesture in Bishoftu town, Ethiopia, last year.
Reuters/Tiksa Negeri
For the first time in years Ethiopia’s ruling coalition faces real political competition from two parties within its own ranks. Can they usher in democracy after nearly 30 years of authoritarianism?
A squadron of UAE Mirage fighter planes such as this one at the Dubai Airshow are stationed in Eritrea for Yemeni operations.
Reuters/Caren Firouz
The growing Arab military, political and religious influence is only the latest example of an external force taking hold in the Horn of Africa.
A man from disputed Badme poses in front of a tank abandoned during the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrea war. The risk of a fresh war is remote.
Reuters/Ed Harris
Will the latest Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict spiral into a large-scale military confrontation? The odds are highly unlikely: neither side believes it would gain from such an eventuality.