Though it remains one of the most economically deprived sub-regions in the world, the Sub-Saharan Africa score highest on the number of countries involved in violent ethnic conflicts around the world. Due to the legacy of colonialism, several ethnic groups that claim homogeneity are today straddling across international boundaries between neighbouring states. And hence, ethnic conflicts in those states definitely have a spillover effect across the borders as trans-boundary alliances among states and kin groups are inevitable. Meanwhile, changes in the political order of the region have a significant influence over the escalation and intensification of conflicts between societies straddle along national borders. Thus, implementations of unilateral resolution attempts by single states are usually falling far short of success. This case study proves the above described hypothesises in such a way that dynamics in regional political orders have been contributing for the escalation of the long-lasting conflicts between the Afar and Somali people whose homeland straddles the borders of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somaliland. Besides, findings of the study also indicate that all unilateral resolution efforts undertaken by individual states of Ethiopia and Djibouti where both ethnicities commonly inhabiting have been fruitless since the time of colonial rules. Indeed, this study further emphasis and analyse the impact of national politico-economic factors (in Ethiopia and Djibouti) that aggravate the tension and further sophisticate map of the conflict.