May Darwich

The memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland announced on 1 January 2024 set off diplomatic rows in the Horn of Africa – and beyond. 

Details of the agreement are not publicly known, but both state leaders have touched on its content.

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our friend and colleague, Mohamed Hassan Ibrahim.

Somaliland’s main port, at the city of Berbera, accounted for two-thirds of the country’s revenues in 2020. Over the years, these revenues have mostly gone into the central state coffers, while the development of Berbera has been neglected. 

Today’s large-scale infrastructures that link African countries to each other and to the outside world are imbricated in colonial relations of power. Colonialism itself can be read as an infrastructure projectspeeding up, directing, and controlling movement to, from, and within Africa.

Having survived centuries of successive governments, colonialism and war, have Berbera’s dockworkers finally met their match?

Somaliland’s dockworkers have been part of the unique fabric of the breakaway republic – and the broader Horn of Africa region – for centuries.

The port city of Bosaso, located at the north-eastern corner of Somalia, provides a striking example of the interlinkage between security and infrastructure.

Berbera port is the main oversee trade gateway of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland. The port city is located on the Gulf of Aden – one of the globally most frequented seaways connecting the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.