Horn Horizon’s sources have disclosed to our newsroom that a delegation from The Ministry of Transport and Logistics of Ethiopia will be traveling to Somaliland by the end of the week. The delegation is expected to discuss the resumption of the concession agreement signed in 2017.
It is to be remembered that Ethiopia signed a concession agreement with DP World and, the Somaliland port authority in Dubai in 2017. The agreement gave a 19% stake to Ethiopia, 51% to DP World, and the remaining to Somaliland. The agreement aimed to rebuild and modernize the port of Berbera. The 30-year-long concession aimed to build a corridor that connects The Port of Berbera to the Ethiopian Border.
On June 2022 the government of Somaliland announced that Ethiopia lost its 19% stake in the port because it failed to meet the conditions required to complete ownership. This was an incident that retracted the agreement signed in 2017. On its trip, the delegation from The Ministry of Transport and Logistics of Ethiopia is expected to renegotiate Ethiopia’s 19% stake in Port of Berbera.
From this and other yet-to-be-disclosed information, the international community seems to be helping Ethiopia to have access to ports with peaceful means.