The Horn’s proliferating diplomatic appointments have done little to bolster African influence amid new Middle Eastern alliances. In September, Ansarullah (the Houthis) took control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, shattering the assumption that the insurgency was confined to northern Yemen. The group is now at the epicentre of the Middle East conflict and is the…
Growing ties between the Houthis and al-Shabaab could turn Red Sea instability into a more dangerous security threat for Africa. The United States-Israel February attack on Iran led to the Iran-backed Houthi militia of Yemen seizing territory at the entrance to the Red Sea, with grave potential consequences for Africa and the world. Intensifying Houthi…
Middle East oil exports, excluding those from Iran, surpassed their pre-war levels last week, despite attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler. For the first time since the U.S. and Israel launched their offensive against Iran at the end of February, the weekly average of…
WASHINGTON — He has accused China of hacking America’s elections and plundering its wealth, yet President Donald Trump has showered the visiting Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, with tributes and affection during their summit meeting this week at the White House. Trump met his Chinese counterpart on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, outside Washington…
The African Union (AU) Commission has issued an urgent call for de-escalation in the Red Sea region, expressing grave concern over attacks targeting regional economic infrastructure and ongoing threats to international commercial shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. In a statement released on September 17, the AU Commission condemned attacks launched by Houthi forces against…
The Houthi takeover of parts of the Red Sea gives the armed group a new platform to challenge global shipping. The group has taken over the port of Mocha, the island of Mayyun, and the Zuqar and Hanish archipelago about 160km north of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. These areas were previously controlled by Yemeni government…
Growing competition for African ports and security partnerships offers new leverage – if countries can avoid deeper geopolitical fragmentation. Ongoing conflict in the Middle East exposes shifting regional geopolitical fault lines that are pulling African states into an emerging macro-conflict system anchored along the Red Sea. This stems from several overlapping crises arising from US…
Yemen’s special envoy to the United Nations called on support from the international community after the Iran-backed Houthi militant group seized control of the Red Sea port city of Mokha. “This renewed war should alarm us all,” Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, warned at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council…
Sentech has reduced its net loss to R60 million, for the financial year ended 31 March. State-owned signal provider Sentech is faring better financially, but is not yet out of the woods. This is based on its 2025/26 financial year (FY) results, which show the entity’s net loss after tax shrunk to R60 million, compared…
LSD Open, a cloud-native and AI systems integration specialist, has achieved Red Hat Specialized Partner status for Mission Critical Automation, joining a small group of Red Hat partners worldwide that hold the designation. The status validates LSD Open’s ability to architect and deploy automated workflows using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Automation has moved from…
