Ethiopia and Somalia decide to cooperate in order to settle the port conflict in Somaliland
Ethiopia and Somalia agreed to cooperate in settling a disagreement over Addis Ababa’s proposal to construct a port in Somaliland, a breakaway area that had attracted regional powers and posed a danger to further destabilize the Horn of Africa.
Following discussions facilitated by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, the leaders of the two nations said that they had reached an agreement to create business agreements that would provide landlocked Ethiopia “reliable, secure and sustainable access to and from the sea.”
It was their first meeting since Ethiopia announced in January that it would recognize Somaliland’s independence in exchange for leasing a port in Somalia’s breakaway northern province.
The agreement was rejected by Mogadishu, which also threatened to withdraw Ethiopian forces fighting Islamist terrorists in Somalia.
Somaliland, which has governed itself and had relative peace and stability since announcing its independence in 1991, is opposed by Somalia to international recognition.
Ethiopia and Somalia announced in a joint statement issued late Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to begin technical talks by the end of February of next year and to wrap them up in four months.
They omitted specifics.
“This joint declaration focuses on the future, not the past,” Erdogan stated during a subsequent news conference in Ankara.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed praised Turkish attempts to settle the conflict, while Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud declared he was prepared to cooperate with Ethiopia.
The dispute has brought Somalia closer to Eritrea, another longstanding adversary of Ethiopia, and Egypt, which has been at odds with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s development of a massive hydro project on the Nile River.
Ethiopia and Somalia are close partners of Turkey, which provides development aid and security force training to Somalia in exchange for a foothold on a vital international shipping route.
