Here is your East-Africa and West-Asia War Map.
"You can't tell the players without a scorecard." Or a good map.
And while size matters, population often matters more, so I added this critical number to each nation.
You'll want to save this map for when the sputtering Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict blows wide open again. Ethiopia has been landlocked since 1993, with the independence of Eritrea. There are parallels to Ukraine gaining its independence from Russia with the breakup of the USSR. Like the USSR, Ethiopia was down-and-out when Eritrea became a nation, and blocked Ethiopia from the Red Sea.
Now Ethiopia is undergoing a resurgence in power and influence. Their "Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam" was built between 2011 and 2025 when it was finished. This giant dam controls the headwaters and lakes of the Blue Nile, which provides 90% of Egypt's fresh water--and the Egyptians are not happy about this new situation.
And the Ethiopians want to regain access to the sea, either across Eritrea, or by making a deal with Somalia. The national government of Somalia opposes this, so Ethiopia supports the independence of "Somaliland," as shown on the map. The Ethiopians think: "this path to independence worked for Eritrea against our interests, so why not an independent Somaliland, working in our interest?" Somaliland would create a free-trade corridor for Ethiopia to the port of Berbera.
Egypt and Sudan already worry about a resurgent Ethiopia. With the opening of the GERD dam, Ethiopia became an electrical power production giant, with the biggest hydropower dam in Africa by far. It will generate even more power as more hydro turbines are put on line.
Did I mention that Ethiopia, similar to Iran, is almost 90% food self-sufficient? Now that it controls the Blue Nile, it's food production will go up even more, while Egypt feels the threat of water cutoffs, or floods, at Ethiopia's whim.
Did I mention that Ethiopia, population 140 million, is majority Orthodox Christian, as is South Sudan, in an otherwise Muslim region?
We are all watching the Iran-USA war and the Saudi-Yemen conflict, but also keep a weather eye on the other side of the Red Sea. Egypt, population 120 million, could be dragged into wars on both sides of it.