New Delhi, April 7 -- Conflict in the Middle East has rattled global markets and injected a dose of uncertainty into geopolitics over the last month. War is always traumatic but this one may have an unexpected consequence. It might have stopped bloodshed on a different continent.

There is compelling evidence that fuel shortages from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz may have propagated a precarious African peace.

Before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global security analysts had been eyeing the prospect of a major land war in a different part of the world: the Horn of Africa.

Landlocked Ethiopia, home to around 130 million people and one of Africa's strongest economies, has been agitating for sea a...