Ethiopia’s gambit for a port is unsettling a volatile region
Abiy Ahmed is doing a deal for a stretch of Somaliland’s coast
GEOPOLITICS IN THE Horn of Africa is already off to a combustible start in the new year. On January 1st Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, and Muse Bihi Abdi, his counterpart in the would-be state of Somaliland next door, delivered a surprise announcement. At a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, they revealed that landlocked Ethiopia is to lease a naval port and a 20km stretch of coastline in the breakaway Somali state. In exchange, Somaliland is to receive shares in Ethiopian Airlines and—much more significantly—possibly official diplomatic recognition by the Ethiopian government. This would make Ethiopia the first country to formally recognise the former British colony, which declared independence from the rest of Somalia more than three decades ago.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline "A storm over a port"
Middle East & Africa January 6th 2024
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