German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday her government plane had to make an unplanned stopover in Saudi Arabia on the way to a visit to Djibouti as it lacked a permit to fly over Eritrea.
Djibouti was the first stop of Baerbock's three-day trip to East Africa, where she is scheduled to hold talks on the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Kenya and South Sudan are the next destinations on the agenda.
Baerbock said the unplanned stop was a reflection of overall instability in the region because nearby countries Sudan and Yemen could not be used as flyover routes because of armed conflicts there.
She added she had planned to convey a message in Djibouti that Germany and the European Union were working on ways to protect Red Sea shipping routes from attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia.