The diplomatic effort comes as Egypt grapples with a 60 per cent drop in canal revenue over the past 11 months — a staggering 7 billion U.S. dollars loss, according to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi — driven by shipping disruptions from attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group on vessels in the Red Sea. On Saturday, Cairo played host to the first meeting of a new trilateral committee with Somalia and Eritrea, following up on an October summit between the three nations’ leaders in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.