Star Metro - Djibouti says offering port-sharing deal to Ethiopia

Relations between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa have soured dramatically since Ethiopia struck a controversial maritime deal in January with the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) gives Ethiopia -- one of the world's biggest landlocked countries -- access to the sea but Somalia has condemned it as an assault on its sovereignty.

Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said his government was offering to operate its port of Tadjoura jointly with Ethiopia, but denied it was planning to hand it over completely.

"What we have proposed to the Ethiopians is not to sell the port of Tadjoura. There has never been any question of ceding or selling the port," he told reporters on Monday.

"It is a national heritage that will never be sold off to anyone," he said, adding that instead: "We manage (the port) together."

The $60-million facility, which opened in 2017, gives access to the Gulf of Aden and then to the Red Sea, one of the world's major maritime trading routes.

Youssouf said it was important for Djibouti, whose economy relies on the international trade and shipping industries, to keep Ethiopia's business.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

Under the January 1 deal with Addis Ababa, Somaliland agreed to lease 20 kilometres (12 miles) of its coast for 50 years to Ethiopia, which wants to set up a naval base and a commercial port.

In return, Somaliland has said Ethiopia would give it formal recognition, although this has never been confirmed by Addis Ababa.

Somaliland, a former British protectorate of 4.5 million people, unilaterally declared independence in 1991 but the move has never been recognised by the international community.

Addis Ababa had access to a port in Eritrea until the two countries went to war in 1998-2000. Since then, Ethiopia has sent most of its sea trade through Djibouti.

Ethiopia and Somalia have a history of stormy relations and territorial feuds, fighting two wars in the late 20th century.

The Ethiopian prime minister had warned Sunday that his country would "humiliate" any nation that threatens its sovereignty, after Addis Ababa accused unnamed actors of seeking to "destabilise" the Horn of Africa.

The comments came after Cairo -- which has long had fraught relations with Addis Ababa over Ethiopia's mega-dam on the Blue Nile -- last month sent military equipment to Somalia.

Egypt has also offered to deploy troops to Somalia under a new African Union-led mission that will replace the current peacekeeping force, known as ATMIS, next year.

Ethiopia is currently a major contributor to ATMIS, which is helping Somali forces in the fight against the Al-Shabaab jihadist group.

W.Richard--SMC