🇺🇸🇸🇦🇾🇪⚡️ — The U.S. is not planning direct military action against the Houthis (Ansarallah) for now, despite repeated Saudi requests for American airstrikes, according to Axios.

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman called Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Thursday to brief him on the Saudi operation against the Houthis and again request U.S. strikes.

CENTCOM has opposed direct involvement, viewing a new campaign in Yemen as a distraction from its focus on Iran.

A U.S. official said the decision could change if the Saudi operation runs into problems.

🇺🇸 The middle class is gone.

According to Fed data, the top 1% of Americans now control ONE-THIRD of all US net worth.

Since 2020, the top 1% have gained +$30 TRILLION in net worth, while the bottom 50% are worth just $4.3 trillion.

🧵 https://fxtwitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2106396378259681615

🇸🇩🇪🇷🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹⚔️🇪🇹🇸🇩 4 years after the Tigray war ended (600k dead), a new war started in northern Ethiopia. Federal forces seized Mekele, the capital of the Tigray region and continue to move northward.

At the same time, the new alliance between Tigray, Amhara Fano forces, Oromo resistance (and Eritrea), is launching many attacks against Ethiopian forces. In 2020 the TPLF retreated to the countryside and mountains, before launching a large counter-offensive liberating most of the Tigray region and reaching Dessie a year later and threatening to march upon Addis Ababa. Thus, the decision to abandon their capital city could be a strategy for later, as the ENDF has heavy armour and air support and the TPLF would likely not survive a pitched battle.

At the same time, important pressure is being put by Tigray forces from the region and the ones living in Sudan (Army 70) on the Welkait front, a disputed region of North-West Ethiopia under ENDF control. The Sudanese Armed Forces are allied with Tigray and Eritrea in this region.

This also explains why Ethiopia is allowing the Rapid Support Forces (Sudanese paramilitary) to use its territory to advance in Blue Nile state in southern Sudan, using its territory. Tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia are very high and cross border fighting between rebel groups and government forces are happening very often.

🔗 Clément Molin

🇪🇬🇸🇩🇪🇷🇸🇴⚔️🇪🇹 Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, invited the presidents of Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia to a summit in New Alamein, to discuss "consultation and coordination on regional issues of mutual concern”.

All 4 countries have, for different reasons, bones to pick with Ethiopia. Egyptian-Ethiopian issues soured over the last decade over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which Egyptian officials feared would reduce the water volume of the Nile River and threaten the livelihoods of the 100 million Egyptians.

Egypt has stationed troops in Somalia to the anger of Ethiopia and in 2024 signed a defense pact with Mogadishu and earlier this year, Cairo increased its participation in the African Union's Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).

Sudan shares Egypt's concerns over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam affecting the water volume of the Nile River but a more pressing issue for Khartoum is the Ethiopian involvement in the Sudanese Civil War on the side of the Rapid Support Forces. In 2020-2021, Sudan and Ethiopia fought a small-scale war over the Al-Fashaga District and due to the ongoing Tigray War, Sudan came out victorious.

Eritrea feels threatened by Ethiopia's desire to gain a port and access to the global ocean while Somalia has a century old dispute with Ethiopia over the ethnically Somali region of Ogaden that was annexed by the Ethiopian Empire in the latter half of the 19th century with multiple wars fought between Ethiopia and Somalia since the 1960s over it.

🔗 AfriMEOsint