ADDIS ABEBA (dpa-AFX) – Somaliland wants to grant the landlocked state of Ethiopia access to the Red Sea. The Ethiopian government announced this on Monday after a meeting between Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland’s head of state Muse Bihi Abdi. The heads of state signed a joint declaration of intent in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, it said. Part of the agreement is also the construction of an Ethiopian military base on the coast of Somaliland. Further details were not initially disclosed.
Ethiopia, with a population of about 126 million, has long sought possible access to the Red Sea, a key trade route connecting East Africa with the Middle East, Europe and Asia, for economic reasons. Abyi announced a few weeks ago that he would make the issue a priority. Until now, Ethiopia’s only trade route to the Red Sea was the port of Djibouti – associated with extremely high costs. Talks with neighbors Eritrea and Somalia had been unsuccessful in the past and often resulted in political tensions.
Somaliland, Ethiopia’s new partner, a region in northern Somalia with around 3.5 million inhabitants, has broken away from Somalia and has been virtually independent for more than three decades./kpa/DP/he
