2024-01-04 14:00:09
Demonstration in support of the Somali government, in Mogadishu, January 3, 2024, following the port agreement signed between Ethiopia and the separatist region of Somaliland. ABDISHUKRI HAYBE / AFP
The agreement concluded between Ethiopia and the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland to allow Addis Ababa to have direct access to the Red Sea is creating a stir in the Horn of Africa. In exchange for making around twenty kilometers of coastline available for a period of fifty years, Ethiopia would have undertaken to “formally recognize the Republic of Somaliland”, according to Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi. A decision perceived by Somalia as a serious attack on its sovereignty.
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Details of the agreement, presented on January 1 in the Ethiopian capital by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland “president” Muse Bihi Abdi, must be revealed in the coming weeks. We do not yet know precisely which part of the coast should come under Ethiopian control, but the towns of Zeilah and Zughaya, not far from Djibouti, are mentioned by different diplomatic sources. Addis Ababa plans to build a commercial port and a military base there, as well as a road corridor. The country could thus benefit from an exclusive economic zone.
Ethiopia finds there both a military and economic advantage. The second most populous country on the continent with 120 million inhabitants, which no longer has a maritime facade since the independence of Eritrea in 1993, lost access to the port of Assab, after the conflict which affixed Addis Ababa to Asmara between 1998 and 2000. Today, more than 90% of Ethiopian imports pass through the port of Djibouti, to which Ethiopia annually pays some 1.5 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros) shipping charges.
” Existential question “
Abiy Ahmed has made the quest for access to the sea a ” existential question “ for his country. In his speech on October 13, 2023, he described the enclavement of Ethiopia as a “geographic prison”, from which she had to free herself. A formula which had alerted the neighboring countries of the Horn of Africa, worried to see the Prime Minister carry out his threats and “to use force” in case negotiations fail. “The region is swimming in troubled waters”summarizes a Djiboutian diplomat.
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For its part, Hargeisa should recover shares in two Ethiopian companies: Ethiopian Airlines, the most profitable airline in Africa, and the telecommunications giant, Ethio Telecom. But Somaliland above all hopes to be officially recognized as a sovereign state. The former British colony unilaterally declared independence in 1991, as Somalia descended into civil war. But since its secession, Somaliland has not been recognized by the international community as independent.
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