Somaliland hopes to become gateway for Horn of Africa

[Khalid Ali]

Somaliland hopes to become gateway for Horn of Africa


The wreckage of fighter jets and goats nibbling the grass alongside the newly laid tarmac at Somaliland’s small Hargeisa airport hardly suggest the territory is about to become an infrastructure hub for the region.

But authorities in the breakaway costal nation in the Horn of Africa say the recently unveiled $10m Kuwaiti-funded makeover of its two airports is just the beginning. They hope the investment will kick-start its efforts to become the new gateway for landlocked Ethiopia’s 92m people, developing connections by road, rail, air and sea in a nation at the meeting point of the African and Arab worlds.

“We believe [developing our export infrastructure] would contribute a lot to the region in terms of our strategic location and help the region’s trade,” says foreign minister Mohamed Bihi Yonis of the territory, which already exports millions of dollars of livestock across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

In recent months, bottlenecks at ports in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Djibouti have highlighted the demand for better infrastructure in a fast-growing region.

Ethiopia, a $43bn economy largely closed to the outside world, is growing at 7 per cent a year and keen to develop coffee and leather manufacturing exports. Ethiopia’s vulnerability was exposed after it lost its main access to the sea when Eritrea won independence in 1994.

“Ethiopia is the only landlocked country in Africa that has only one export port,” says Lars Christian Moller, the World Bank’s lead economist in Addis Ababa, referring to the small city-state of Djibouti, where Dubai’s DP World runs a huge port operation.

“Relying only on one trade corridor makes the management of the political economy of logistics particularly vulnerable to the relationship with the partner country Djibouti,” says a recent World Bank report co-authored by Mr Moller. It counsels Ethiopia to develop transport routes through Somaliland to “diversify Ethiopia’s options and thus improve its negotiating power with transit corridors”.

It could also greatly assist Somaliland’s efforts to secure international recognition. Hargeisa declared independence from Somalia when civil war started 22 years ago, but has yet to be recognised by neighbours reluctant to undermine Mogadishu, only now emerging towards a fragile peace. The fact that Hargeisa is officially seen as part of Somalia could yet complicate investors’ efforts to secure insurance and financing.

The former British colony has no banks, no access to international finance and survives on a budget that runs only to $125m a year for its 4m mostly nomadic people. It derives much of its income from transport taxes and remittances.

Still, Somaliland officials say they hope one day to serve 30 per cent of Ethiopia’s exports, worth close to $1bn a year. They are to meet counterparts in neighbouring Ethiopia for trade talks later this year. “We would start tomorrow if we had the infrastructure ready,” says Suleiman Diriye, director-general at the ministry of finance. Ethiopia’s trade ministry did not return requests for comment.

Jason McCue, a British businessman appointed as an envoy for Somaliland’s independence bid, is trying to assemble a consortium of investors to develop the beachside town of Berbera as a $2.5bn logistics hub, including an oil pipeline when exploration for crude accelerates in Somaliland and Ethiopia.

“The economic case for developing Somaliland is just mind-blowing – Berbera port is key,” says Mr McCue, whose Berbera Development Company is tasked by government to select a port developer and operator.

Ethiopian Airlines, among the three biggest airlines on the subcontinent, is “very confident” that volumes of passengers and goods via Somaliland will rise, and intends to start a joint venture to develop cargo flights to serve goods transiting the port.

“We expect Somaliland to be a growing trade centre in east Africa and are positioning ourselves to meet and cater to the demand,” says deputy CEO Esayas Woldemariam Hailu, who attended the reopening of Hargeisa airport last month.

At the airport reopening ceremony, a luxurious private jet delivered Kuwaiti benefactors to the airport, littered as it is with fighter jets. Yet, Hargeisa is long used to such contrasts: goats and Hummers, camels and four by fours regularly share the hot dusty streets. But if proof were needed of the scale of the territory’s ambitions, look no further than the high-powered VIP lounge: Hargeisa’s small, revamped airport has two.

Financial times

[SomaliDefenceCouncil]

With all the corruption and nepotism.

[Khalid Ali]

[OjOO]

After 20 years they's some hope , join Oromia,

[Khalid Ali]

After 20 years they's some hope , join Oromia,

The Galla Qoshasha are a waste of sperm. they cant even join themselves to fight the agame from Tigray, The Galla are ruled by a tiny minority of Ethiopia.

[OjOO]

Don't hide behind aggame, embrace your inner oromo.

our sperm are more lethal then yours, hence we are 40 millione and your only one million. i blame chewing

[Khalid Ali]

The Gallas are the toilet cleaners of the Aggame ,these monkey's have been so domesticated they forgot who they are

You are 40 million slaves The Galla is of low quality

[OjOO]

you're gallas yourself, if anything you been cleaning after british such long time you forget you're oromones.


youre oromo so embrace it. we have bun and kaat. come to mama oromia galla boy

[Khalid Ali]

Stop projecting your insecurities on me, you are Galla and the Galla was born to be a slave, the Slave of Menelik the slave of the great haile selassie the slave of Ato Mengistu the slave of Meles Zenawi. The Galla will always be the slave of the Xabashi, he was created by Allah to serve the Xabashi. There is no such thing as Oromia it does not exist now go clean the toilets of the Agame.

[OjOO]

You're oromo don't run away from it, if anybody was a toilet to any one is you. even as far as claiming to arab. when we know you're oromo through and through.

Somaliland don't exist either, you been and still are british toilet cleaner GALLA BOY.

the man in your avatar look oromo to me who is he. is that you?

Embrace your inner oromo

[Khalid Ali]

Galla beast why are you angry , the Gallas are not Humans they are subhumans, whats this oromo thing you keep repeating , there is no such thing as Oromo, oromo is a fake identity it was created 40 years ago. Your name is Galla embrace it, you are a Xabashi servant the inferior galla is only a burden to the Xabashi, and the wider region. By the way are you a Muslim or a christian or a waaqist the gallas always try to suck up to Somalis , when the Xabashis abuse them go some where else we are not UNICEF or human rights watch

[OjOO]

where i'm sitting your been abuse, hence less then million, and we are 40 million. don't worry we will civilize you and re-teach you loss culture of farming and honest hard work.

Let me remind you oromo boy incase your forgeten arab wanna be, Arabsio,hergeisa, waaqooy is oromo language, so sit down and embrace you're inner oromo.

Everyone in waaqooy look oromo including you

British toilet cleaner and arab wanna be galla boy

[Khalid Ali]

Oke enough for to day i have no interests to talk further about the gallas the xabashi slaves, the gallas are not worth my attention
The Gallas consist of 40 million slaves their destiny is always in the hands of others whether Amhara or Tigray, they dont care they are Killed, maimed yet they remain submissive docile communities. Harag geysa , is where we used to trade the harag. unless the gallas are Harags maybe we used to trade the Gallas we used export them to Arabs 40 million gallas ruled by 6 million tigre's now continue cleaning the toilet.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

Inshallah, when I get to power SL will be a commercial heavyweight.

[HooBariiska]

Inshallah, when I get to power SL will be a commercial heavyweight.

u got vision?