Ethiopia names three states; those three sit down together on Egypt’s coast
Addis Ababa accused Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan of backing the TPLF and shut its embassy in Asmara. Three days later all three leaders were at a summit hosted by Sisi.
Reuters reported on 1 October, carried by TimesLIVE, that Ethiopia had accused Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt of supporting an opposition alliance led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which has been fighting troops loyal to the federal government; Addis Ababa shut its embassy in Eritrea and expelled 10 envoys. All three accused states deny the charge. Cairo’s reply came through its own channels: state media quoted an unnamed source calling Ethiopia’s expulsion of an Egyptian diplomat “unfortunate” and unjustified — an anonymous briefing in a state outlet, and it should be read as such. On 3 October the state-owned Ahram Online quoted Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty saying recent Ethiopian statements “primarily seek to divert attention from domestic crises,” while reiterating Egypt’s rejection of interference in Ethiopia’s internal affairs.
On Sunday 4 October, according to Addis Standard, the El Alamein Joint Declaration was issued after a quadrilateral summit in Egypt attended by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council chairman Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. Per IANS, the leaders stressed international law as the basis for regional stability and called for respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Sisi, quoted by The National on 2 October, said Egypt was creating “space for diplomacy and peaceful solutions,” but that this “will not be at the expense of Egypt’s existence and its people.” An Egyptian source, unnamed, separately questioned an African Union statement for drawing Cairo into an internal Ethiopian crisis.
Assessment: Hold two things apart. Ethiopia’s accusation is a claim, denied by three governments, with no independent evidence in any wire reporting retrieved — it must not travel as an event. The attendance list at El Alamein is a confirmed fact, and it is the one that does the analytical work: three of the four states Addis named sat with Egypt four days after the expulsions. That is not proof of a proxy campaign; it is proof of an encirclement architecture Cairo is content to display. The declaration’s language — sovereignty, territorial integrity, international law — is aimed simultaneously at Ethiopia’s Red Sea port ambitions and at the GERD precedent of unilateral action. Watch whether Somalia’s presence survives contact with Addis Ababa’s leverage in Mogadishu.