Berbera is a seaside city in the Sahil region of Somaliland, and yet Somaliland hasn’t received official recognition as an independent sovereign country from any member of the United Nations.
By Alice Scarsi
The coastal city of Somaliland may become the focus of the world’s next war.
Berbera, home to some 242,000 people, is the capital of the Sahil region of Somaliland and a historically important seaport.
Earlier this month, the global spotlight was put on Berbera after Ethiopia took the first legal steps to try and gain access to the sea.
Ethiopia is a landlocked country and has been using the port in neighboring Djibouti for most of its imports and exports since Eritrea seceded in the early 1990s. On January 1, amid its search for access to the sea, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, which proclaimed independence from Somalia in 1991 after a decade-long war.
More than 30 years later, the breakaway country hasn’t been recognized as an independent nation by any UN members but has struck diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, and Ethiopia, among others.
In its quest to obtain access to the sea, however, Ethiopia has pledged to eventually recognize Somaliland as an independent country.
Only a few details of the memorandum, a non-legally binding statement of intent, have been shared so far, but a statement shared by the office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in early January it would “pave the way to realize the aspiration of Ethiopia to secure access to the sea and diversity its access to seaports.
The memorandum, the statement added, indicates a pathway to “bolster political and diplomatic relations” between Somaliland and Ethiopia, suggesting the breakaway region could soon boost its international status.
The negotiations leading up to the memorandum reportedly focused on Berbera.
The memorandum was hailed as a “historic agreement” by Somaliland, with its foreign ministry saying it “ensures Ethiopia’s access to the sea for their naval forces, reciprocated by formal recognition of the Republic of Somaliland, marking this as a significant diplomatic milestone for our country.
This recognition, key for Somaliland, came in exchange for “20km sea access for the Ethiopian naval forces, leased for a period of 50 years,” the president of the breakaway country, Muse Bihi Abdi, said, as quoted by his foreign ministry.
This isn’t the first time Ethiopia and Somaliland have tried to strike a deal on accessing the sea through the region. In 2018, they signed an agreement that would have led Addis Ababa to own a 19 percent stake in the port of Berbera, but the pact came undone four years later after “Ethiopia failed to meet the conditions needed to acquire the stake before the deadline,” Somaliland claimed at the time.
Somalia, which still considers Somaliland as part of its own territory, blasted the memorandum as null and void and announced it would recall its ambassador to Ethiopia for deliberations.
After an emergency meeting, Somalia’s cabinet said in a statement: “Ethiopia’s step … endangers the stability and peace of the region.”
