The war in North africa?
The axis forces had invaded Northern Africa to go after OIL.
Ethiopia and a few other places had oil. So the Allied forces went
after the Axis forces to get them out of Northern Africa and
deprive them of oil.
England needed the Suez Canal ship supplies from India,
Australia, and the Far East. Mussolini threatened the canal and
Hitler had to bail him out when he got into trouble. Hitler would
have preferred to have used the forces in Russia.