<\/p>\n
Agencies- Sudan Events<\/strong><\/p>\n Somalia is prepared to go to war to stop Ethiopia recognizing the breakaway territory of Somaliland and building a port there, a senior adviser to Somalia\u2019s president said.<\/p>\n A memorandum of understanding signed on 1 January allowing landlocked Ethiopia to develop a naval base on Somaliland\u2019s coast has rattled the Horn of Africa, one of the world\u2019s most volatile regions.<\/p>\n Ethiopia and Somalia fought a conflict in 1977-78 over a disputed region and tensions still run deep. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in 2006 to dislodge Islamists from Mogadishu, helping to spark the Al-Shabaab insurgency, and today it is one of the largest contributors of troops in the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.<\/p>\n Somaliland was a British colony until 1960. The territory enjoyed five days of independence before voluntarily uniting with Somalia, a former Italian colony. It was a bumpy union that ended with Somaliland breaking away in 1991, after a decade-long liberation struggle against a Soviet-backed military regime. Today, Somaliland is a de facto independent state, with its own currency, a parliament and overseas diplomatic missions.<\/p>\n Somaliland was a British colony until 1960. The territory enjoyed five days of independence before voluntarily uniting with Somalia, a former Italian colony. It was a bumpy union that ended with Somaliland breaking away in 1991, after a decade-long liberation struggle against a Soviet-backed military regime.<\/p>\n For two decades, Somalia has been blighted by Al-Shabaab, a powerful affiliate of Al-Qaida, making it one of the world\u2019s most dangerous countries. By contrast, Somaliland is relatively peaceful, even if recent clashes on its eastern frontier with Somalia have dented its stable image.<\/p>\n Without recognition, Somaliland struggles to attract investment and is cut off from international finance, which is mostly channeled through Mogadishu. In an interview with the Observer, Somaliland\u2019s foreign minister, Essa Kayd, said the port deal with Ethiopia will \u201clegitimise our self-determination\u201d and could spark a \u201cdomino effect\u201d of other countries recognising the territory.<\/p>\n However, there is confusion over the content of the deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia. Neither side has made the full text public.<\/p>\n A western diplomat briefed on the deal described it as a \u201cmemorandum of misunderstanding\u201d. \u201cEthiopia insists they did not agree to recognise Somaliland,\u201d the diplomat said.<\/p>\n Kayd said the deal is based on Ethiopia granting recognition to Somaliland: \u201cWithout that, nothing is going to happen.\u201d He added that discussions had been progressing \u201cfor years\u201d. \u201cEthiopia needs sea access and we need recognition, so you can see how these needs can be dealt with.\u201d<\/p>\n Somalia is unlikely to attack Ethiopia while it grapples with Al-Shabaab, said Alan Boswell, but the deal could open fresh fissures in a turbulent region.<\/p>\n The countries are Ethiopia\u2019s main regional rivals and have both expressed support for Somalia in the wake of the port deal. \u201cAbiy sees this as a legacy issue,\u201d said Boswell. \u201cIf this deal with Somaliland falls through, Ethiopia will try to find a port somewhere else, so this is going to shape regional dynamics for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Agencies- Sudan Events Somalia is prepared to go to war to stop Ethiopia recognizing the breakaway territory of Somaliland and building a port there, a senior adviser to Somalia\u2019s president said. A memorandum of understanding signed on 1 January allowing landlocked Ethiopia to develop a naval base on Somaliland\u2019s coast has rattled the Horn …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11191,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11189\/revisions\/11191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}