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Al Jazeera Net- With great anger, the Somali government quickly announced its categorical rejection of its neighbor’s agreement Ethiopia With territory Somaliland Breakaway to use port Berbera On the southern coast of the Gulf Aden.
The Somali government was not content with announcing its rejection and considering “the agreement null and unfounded,” as it hastened on Tuesday to summon its ambassador in Addis Ababa for consultations the day after the agreement was announced.
The government said in a statement that Ethiopia’s action – which also included recognizing Somaliland as an independent state when the time is right – constitutes a threat to stability and peace in the region.
Berbera is an African port on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden at the entrance to… The Red Sea leading to Suez CanalThe memorandum allows Ethiopia to acquire an unspecified share of the port, in addition to establishing a military base.
In an attempt to understand the escalating crisis between… Mogadishu AndAddis Ababa We try to answer the most prominent questions of the event.
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Why was the agreement announced now?
The Ethiopian agreement was surprisingly signed with the leader of the separatist Republic of Somaliland, Musa Bihi Abdi, after it was Somalia Somaliland and Somaliland agreed last week to resume negotiations between them – after mediation efforts led by Djibouti – to settle outstanding issues, following years of political tension.
The agreement came two months after statements by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed In front of Parliament, he spoke about the existential necessity for his geographically landlocked country to reach warm waters again, through a sovereign port on the banks of the Red Sea via Eritrea Or Somalia or Djibouti.
Abiy Ahmed added in his speech last October 13 that with the increasing population in Ethiopia, the issue of discussing obtaining a sea port on the Red Sea is no longer a luxury, but rather an existential issue for Ethiopia, as how can a country that is making rapid strides to reach its population of about 150 million to live in a “geography prison”?
“Ethiopia’s existence is linked to the Red Sea,” he said, adding that if we (Horn of Africa countriesIf we intend to live together in peace, we must find a way to engage with each other in a balanced way.
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Why is Abiy Ahmed looking for a port for his country?
Since the middle of the last century, Ethiopia has enjoyed a sustainable and sovereign sea port on the Red Sea through the ports of “Assab” and “Massawa” in Eritrea until the latter’s independence from it in 1993. Since that date, it has relied on the port of Djibouti as the only port through which about 95% of its trade passes. With the outside world.
Ethiopia views the Horn of Africa, the Nile Basin, and the Great Lakes as a region of regional influence in which it seeks to highlight its dominance and expand its influence in order to become one of the poles of the African continent, and considers obtaining a sovereign maritime outlet to the Red Sea one of the most important tools for achieving this goal.
Redwan Hussein, National Security Adviser to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, confirms that the memorandum of understanding signed by Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland President Musa Bihi Abdi paves the way for Ethiopia for maritime trade in the region by granting it access to a rented military base on the Red Sea.
He adds that Somaliland will also acquire a stake in state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, without giving further details.
Ethiopia (the landlocked country) depends on neighboring Djibouti for most of its maritime trade, including exports and imports. Therefore, through the agreement, Addis Ababa is also trying to join the Council of States bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which was established in 2020, and which includes Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia from the African coast. For the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Yemen from the Asian side.
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Why did Somalia strongly object to the agreement?
The Somali government considers Somaliland to be part of Somalia under the Somali Constitution, and considers this agreement a blatant violation of its sovereignty and unity, stressing that the agreement is invalid and has no legal basis.
Says the Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud “This step taken by the Ethiopian authorities may lead them to wrongly exploit Somali lands,” he said, calling on his people to unite to defend the country’s territorial unity and national sovereignty.
Somaliland did not gain widespread international recognition despite declaring secession and autonomy from Somalia in 1991.
The objection was not limited to Somalia, as the German News Agency quoted informed sources as saying that Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelle rebuked the Ethiopian ambassador to his country for concealing the details of the negotiations with Somaliland.
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What do we know about Somaliland?
The Somaliland region is located in the Horn of Africa, north of Somalia. The area of the region is about one million and 376 thousand square kilometers. It is bordered to the south and west by Ethiopia, to the north by Djibouti and the Gulf of Aden, and to the east by the Somali region of Puntland, whose capital is Hargeisa, and whose climate is humid tropical.
The region’s population adheres to Sunni Islam, the majority of whom follow the Shafi’i school of thought, and their language is Somali. The Ishaq tribe constitutes the majority of the population, and their number is estimated at 3.5 million according to 2008 statistics.
After the collapse of the central government in Somalia in 1991, Somaliland unilaterally declared its independence on May 18 of the same year.
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What are the expected consequences of the crisis?
Immediately after the agreement was announced, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said, “We are determined to defend the country, and we will not allow any inch of its land, sea, or sky to be violated.”
Somalia also called on the United Nations, the African Union, the Arab League, the East African Community, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in East Africa (IGAD) and other organizations to support Somalia’s right to defend its sovereignty and force Ethiopia to abide by international laws, and the Ethiopian authorities have not commented on the issue at the present time.
Experts fear that Ethiopian moves to reach the Red Sea will lead to war in the Horn of Africa region, especially in light of Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti’s criticism of Abiy Ahmed’s statements that his country’s failure to secure access to blue waters could lead to conflict.
