Southern Red Sea
Southern Red Sea shows stranded infrastructure like abandoned nests: Assab port handled two-thirds of Ethiopian trade until 1998, now dormant as regional powers negotiate its future.
The Southern Red Sea region illustrates how geopolitical conflict can strand strategic infrastructure. Stretching 500 kilometers along Eritrea's coast but only 50 kilometers wide, this Afar-inhabited territory includes Assab, a port that once handled two-thirds of landlocked Ethiopia's trade with the world. When the Eritrean-Ethiopian War erupted in 1998, borders closed, and Assab's population collapsed from its peak to an estimated 20,222 by 2005.
The port's dormancy has attracted new attention as regional tensions evolve. In late 2025, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister reaffirmed that secure Assab access remains a strategic national priority, noting Ethiopian investment in the port both before and after Eritrea's independence. Egypt agreed in 2025 to develop Assab alongside Djibouti's Doraleh port, creating berths for warships in what analysts view as pressure on Ethiopia. The Global Peace Index 2025 identified Ethiopia-Eritrea as one of four global dyads at highest risk of rapid escalation, based on unresolved border disputes, persistent militarization, and historical grievances.
The region remains one of Eritrea's most inhospitable, among the hottest and driest zones in the country. The Afar population spans three nations, creating irredentist dynamics that complicate regional stability. Yet development efforts continue: in 2025, the regional government expanded pre-school education, addressed water shortages in Assab, and trained farmers in organic fertilizer production. The Southern Red Sea exists in a strange limbo, its port facilities largely idle while major powers negotiate their potential reactivation, a strategic asset whose value derives precisely from its position blocking Ethiopian access to the sea.