by Alberto Galvi –
In the next few days in Ankara, Turkey, the foreign ministers of Somalia and Ethiopia will meet to discuss the differences regarding the port agreement signed between Addis Ababa and the Somali separatist region of Somaliland. The agreement gives Ethiopia a 50-year lease on a naval base with access to the port of Berbera in Somaliland.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will present the talks between Somalia and Ethiopia.
The basis of the dispute is that Ethiopia, a landlocked country, has made an agreement behind Mogadishu to lease 20 km of coast from Somaliland in exchange for recognizing the independence of the separatist region. In response, the Somali government first expelled Ethiopian ambassador Mukhtar Mohamed last April. The Somali authorities have also closed the Ethiopian consulates in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, and Garowe, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, while the central government has no control over Somaliland.
Turkey has become a close friend of Somalia, a country that today hosts one of the main Turkish centers on the African continent, and an economic and defense cooperation agreement was signed between the two countries. a few months ago. Ethiopia’s economy is hampered by its lack of access to the sea, as it was cut off from the Gulf of Aden after a three-decade war that saw Eritrea secede in 1993, taking the country’s entire coastline with it.
Somalia considers any international recognition of Somaliland as an attack on its sovereignty, so it considers the port agreement made by Ethiopia to be illegal. Diplomatic tensions are sky high, so the aim is to avoid a direct conflict between the two countries, i.e. between Ethiopia, a country with an average annual GDP growth of 11% but involved in the Tigray conflict, and Somalia, a country very weak , with a growth of 2.4% and almost dependent on compensation, with the war against al-Shabaab in the south and separatists winds in the north and east of the country.
