This archive report was first published on 11 December 2019.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019, marked a significant milestone for the Horn of Africa region, as it emerged as a crucial gateway to international trade and investment.
The region's strategic location on the Bab al Mandab Strait and Indian Ocean coast, where nearly 20 percent of the world's trade and maritime shipping pass through, has made it an attractive hub for trade and investment.
Thanks to the development of its sea ports, the Horn of Africa is set to become a key link between sub-Saharan Africa and the international trade route, Suez Canal, and the Arabian Peninsula on the opposite side of the Red Sea.
With the recent discoveries of oil, gas, and other extractive minerals in sub-Saharan Africa countries, the region is poised for significant economic growth. Countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia, DR Congo, and Kenya are now exploiting these resources, further boosting the region's economic potential.
The coastal Horn of Africa countries have also experienced a relative peace renaissance, enabling the development of their ports and roads, which had been hindered by civil and territorial wars, military rules, and instabilities in the past.
This peace break and political trust is attributed to the reconciliations initiated by Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Abiy Ahmed, who made series of armistice with Eritrea and Somalia, and intermediated peace in the internal conflicts of Sudan and South Sudan.
Landlocked Ethiopia has a strategic interest in accessing the ports on the Horn and the Indian Ocean to serve its international trade. Port Sudan on the Red Sea Coast has a road and railway connection to Wau in South Sudan, and is only three hundred miles away from delivery to Kampala by road and to other destinations in DR Congo.
Eight developed sea ports in Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia on the Red Sea are fully operational and being served by either Railway or Roads through Ethiopia. Shippers can now drop their cargoes destined for the interior of Africa in any of these ports and ferried through Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and onward to DR Congo.
The East African ports of Dar es Saalam, Mombasa, and Lamu, with their relatively ultra-modern combined Standard Gauge railways, roads, oil pipelines, and other infrastructures from East African Ports to Uganda and beyond, are not a 'lunatic lines' but a sensible and strategic must-do projects to compete and open up sub-Saharan Africa to boost intra-Africa trade and support needed investments.
The writer is a retired Kenyan diplomat.
