Egypt has agreed to develop seaports in the Horn of Africa nations of Eritrea and Djibouti, part of its campaign to increase pressure on landlocked Ethiopia over its long-running Nile water dispute, sources in Cairo told The National.
Under the agreements signed without fanfare, Egypt will upgrade the strategic Red Sea port of Asab in Eritrea and Doraleh in Djibouti on the Arabian Sea to increase their capacity, and create berths for warships and the scope to post small but elite military contingents.
Both ports lie near the Bab Al Mandeb strait, the southern gate of the Red Sea. Ethiopia, which borders Eritrea and Djibouti, is known to be heavily reliant on Doraleh for the transfer of goods.
Egypt has more than 2,000km of Red Sea coastline on its mainland and the Sinai Pe
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