Ethiopia is one of the ancient countries in the world with its own administration system and governance. Located in the Horn of Africa flanked by the red sea and Indian Ocean, it had an exposure to sea outlet and utilized sea route for various purposes including trade, monitoring the trade security and to keep contact the outside world for millennia.
According to the Historian Richard Pankhurst, during the Axum kingdom before the birth of Christ, the kingdom had traded with India, Persia and Mesopotamia. It had exported slaves, elephant’s horn and spices to these countries and in the return, aesthetic materials including jewelry were imported and that time port of Adulis, located in the suburb of the red sea, had played pivotal role in facilitating trade.
In the 6th century, King Kaleb of Ethiopia conquered the other side of the red sea and managed to govern South Arabia and the local communities. However, after the devastating war on the port of Adulis exerted by the Arab forces in 7th century, the trade and the wealth generated from it had declined which again critically affected the kingdom’s capacity to govern the region and its influence also declined.
In the later century, the kingdom changed its expansion policy from across the red sea towards in the hinter land of the country.
The down fall of the Axum kingdom in the 11th century paved way for the accenting of the Zague dynasty. That time the kings side by side with engaging in expanding Christianity, they kept contact with sea outlet and trading with the Middle East Countries had continued. Trade had been their economic and power base and sustained the statuesque through subjugating their subjects.
The Solomonic Dynasty which succeeded the Zague also continued to have access to sea for their trade engagement. Kings vigorously continued their expansion towards the south and east to enhance their economic base by conquering the indigenous population.
According to the Faqi al-habesha an Egyptian historian, the Solomonic kings had expanded their territories towards the east and had managed to control the port of Zeyla located in the suburb of the Gulf of Aden. Foreign intruders also had used sea routes to invade the hinter land of the country but rebuffed by the kings’ armies.
That time, caravan trade to the Middle East was expanded. Historians proved that, in the last quarter of the18th century when Ethiopia found itself in the Era of princes, it could manage getting access to sea and the then Gonderian kings traded with the Middle East through port of Massawa which was part of the province of Bahire-Negash. Slaves were the major export items while weapons and house hold utensils were imported items.
The construction of Suez Canal by the Egyptian leader Kehdive Ismael in 1869 brought new development in trade and politics of the world.
The canal shortened trade distance between Europe and Asia and reduced transaction cost. In addition, it created good opportunities to European colonizers to realize their colonial ambition and conquer people in both sides of the red sea and Horn of Africa at large.
In 1888, colonial powers convened in Berlin which paved the way for the scramble for Africa. Germany, Britain and France mapped Africa and created territories which would be subjugated under their yoke. The Horn of Africa’s fate was similar to other parts of Africa and accordingly British and France carved it and Italy as late comer also annexed parts of the Horn.
History proved that there was no indigenous government in the Horn of Africa except Ethiopia before the advent of colonialism in the region and Ethiopia had been influential country over the Red Sea and the suburb of Indian Ocean in East Africa. Countries such as Sudan, Eritrea (created by colonial powers through annexed from the northern most point of Ethiopia), Djibouti and Somalia were created by colonial powers in the last quarter of the 19th century and consequently the situation barred Ethiopia from sea outlet.
After the end of the World War II, when the United Nation determined with regard to the fate of countries colonized by Italy the issue of Eritrea was among the agenda. Considering its historic, cultural, linguistic and territorial attachment to Eritrea more over to get access to the sea, Ethiopia staged it’s diplomatic battle in the United Nation platform.
After cautiously dealt with the matter, the UN decided to conduct referendum to decide the fate of Eritrea. As a result, the people of Eritrea was given choices including to be unified with Ethiopia, to be federated with Ethiopia or to attain sovereignty but the outcome of the referendum showed that the country to be federated with Ethiopia. After 60 years of staying under the yolk of colonialism, Eritrea became federated with Ethiopia in 1955 and Ethiopia in its modern history got access to sea formally.
The three decades of war between the secessionists and the government sent the Eritrean issue to the UN. Once again after the EPRDF regime took power in 1993 the so called referendum took place and Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia. Since then, Ethiopia is denied its access to sea outlet. Thus, Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa next to Nigeria with more than 125 million people has become landlocked.
Though agriculture is the main stay of the country, the economy is growing steady fast and the manufacturing sector is growing from time to time. Currently, its import and export trade is increasing. As a land locked country, it is coerced to use ports located in the Neighboring countries such as Djibouti, Berbera, Lamu and Port Sudan.
Using other country’s port has its own impact on the nation’s economy for instance, Ethiopia annually pays about 2 billion US Dollars for port service to Djibouti and for the developing country like ours, paying such amount of money is unbearable and unsustainable.
Utilizing the port of Djibouti is also logistically disadvantageous. About 100 kilo meter high way inside Djibouti territory is dilapidated and the road in addition to delaying truck movements, it critically damages vehicles; that is why drivers are complaining repeatedly. Hence, finding other ways to get our own port is essential.
According to the World Trade Organization, trade is one of the fundamental components of economic growth and poverty reduction. Therefore, it is difficult to a land locked country to manage both to achieve and sustain economic growth and seizing the opportunities offered by open world markets.
However, many nations of the world have not yet managed to realize the benefits of trade, some of the worst-off countries regarding trade are landlocked developing countries. The level of development in these countries is on average about 20% lower than it would have been if they were not landlocked.
Sub-Saharan Africa is a region with 16 landlocked countries, 13 of them are among the least developed countries while the remaining three are considered developing countries. The reasoning for why being a landlocked country can have negative implications regarding trade has its foundation in the lack of domestic access to ports.
The majority of international freight is delivered through sea transport as sea transport is significantly cheaper than other modes of transportation. It is typically 6-7 times less costly than road transport and 12-16 times less costly than air freight.
In the Sub-Saharan African region goods need to pass through long distances of land transport to access ports, which is not only costly but also time consuming due to lack of adequate transport infrastructure in the region. Furthermore, for landlocked countries to access the cost-effective sea transport, they need access to the neighboring transit countries territory.
Accessing an additional countries territory means dealing with additional border measures, which in the Sub-Saharan African region takes time and is related to high costs. A case study from the World Bank´s doing business project concluded that the estimated time it takes for an exported goods to pass a border in Sub-Saharan Africa is 97 hours, which is the highest average score of all regions in the world. It is nearly the double amount of time it takes in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. At the same time, the time to cross a border in Europe and Central Asia is shorter by over six times.
The cost created by the long transport routes along with the need to pass a border to access maritime transport erodes the landlocked countries’ international competitiveness. Studies have already determined the trade disadvantage of landlocked countries and estimated the impact of variables such as the level of infrastructure and comparing the transport costs of landlocked countries with maritime countries.
Along with an estimation of the impact on trade of the two main distinctions of landlocked countries compared to countries with coastal locations; transportation cost of the earlier would be high because of distance to ports and their need to pass borders to access the sea.
According to the study conducted by the United Nations specifically focusing on the Sub Saharan Africa region of the 46 countries of the world that are considered the least developed, 33 of them are situated in SSA being a landlocked in the region which already are suffering from poverty and economic vulnerability constitute an additional layer of issues.
Ethiopia, as one of the developing countries in the world, has to boost and diversify its export trade and utilize various ports in order to eradicate poverty and attain development. The government’s agreement with the Somaliland to own port is a remarkable venture. Because owning the port boosts import and export trades with minimum cost and with no congestion and reduced transaction cost. Therefore, to put the agreement on the ground, all stakeholders should exert their maximum effort.
By the same token, the international community should recognize that Ethiopia needs sea access as it is a large country with its highest population in the continent next to Nigeria and stand by it for the realization of its quest peacefully. Access to the sea benefits not only Ethiopia, but also the countries in the region and the entire world since Ethiopia’s contribution for peace and security of the region is remarkable.
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 22 OCTOBER 2024
