A Somalia Port for a Returned Somali land!

Ethiopia, a land locked country ( and due to its demographic explosion in the horizon), is desperate for a seaport!

Somalia, on the other hand, a tiny country with a tiny population of 17 million, is blessed with The longest coastline on mainland Africa of approximately 3333 km!

The question is, what would Ethiopia be willing to giveup in order to get a port of its own in Somalia, with reasonable restrictions to commericial import/export activities only of course?

What would it hurt if Somalia, say, makes overtures to Ethiopia of giving, let us say, Zayla port to Ethiopia for the full return of the Ogaden Somali region to Somalia in return?

What do I mean by giving “Zayla port” to Ethiopia? I do not mean to say Zayla port will become an Ethiopian territory. Rather, Zayla port would be used by Ethiopia exclusively in perpetuaty and freely (with safeguards of course) in return of a Somali land on which the 2 countries went to war several times.

Isn’t the allowing of the usage of one Somalia port by Ethiopia worth the recovery of or reunification with Western Somaliland for Somalia?

However, the main question is, is it worth for Ethiopia to give up an arid, semidesert, insignificant dry land for the utilization of a Somali port in perpetuaty?

I would very much like to find that out, wouldn’t you?

Hassan Zaylai

Haahzay@hotmail.com

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