Wednesday September 4, 2024
By Stephen Engle and Simon Marks
(Bloomberg) -- Djibouti’s government expects Ethiopia to accept an offer for exclusive access to one of its ports, a proposal that’s aimed at defusing regional tensions triggered by Addis Ababa’s bid to regain direct access to the sea.
The plan has been submitted to the Ethiopian authorities and “we are expecting a positive response soon,” Djiboutian Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said in an interview Wednesday on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing. Youssouf announced last week that the government planned to offer landlocked Ethiopia “100% management” of a harbor at Tadjoura on Djibouti’s coast.
Two Ethiopian government spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment sent by text message. The country lost its access to the sea in 1991, when Eritrea gained independence after a three-decade war.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed set off a diplomatic row in January when he announced plans for a deal to secure access to a port in Somaliland — a semi-autonomous region of Somalia — in return for a stake in state-owned Ethiopian Airlines. Somalia, which regards Somaliland as part of its territory, balked at the proposal.
The offer by Djibouti is part of its efforts to address multiple crises in the Horn of Africa region. In addition to the dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia, Djibouti is trying to help ease tensions in Sudan, where a civil war has been raging for more than a year, as it deals with the impact of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
“We are in the middle of the storm and we are trying to do our level best to help countries like Sudan” as well as trying to decrease the tension between Somalia and Ethiopia, Youssouf said.
Djibouti is located on a global shipping choke-point that links the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. It’s also home to military bases of the US, Saudi Arabia, European Union nations and China.
Youssouf, a leading candidate to take over as head of the African Union next year, said African leaders welcome Beijing’s help in resolving security issues across the continent and funding peacekeeping missions.
China can also help to bring an end to the war between Israel and Hamas, Youssouf said. That conflict is spilling over into the Horn of Africa because of the attacks by the Houthi rebels.
“China has an ear in Tehran and Tehran has an ear with the Houthis and also with Hamas,” he said. “It’s in the best interest of China to help, you know, resolve this problem in the Middle East so that the influence of trade through the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb be made safer than what it is now.”
The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation kicks off officially Wednesday night with a gala dinner hosted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Youssouf is accompanied on his visit by Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh.