Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Somalia is ready to let landlocked Ethiopia use two or three Somali ports for imports and exports, provided any arrangement stays under Somali sovereignty and is negotiated between the two countries. Somalia Today reported the remarks on October 4, days after Mohamud held a one-day working visit with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa on September 29.
Mohamud told Al Jazeera that Somalia does not oppose Ethiopia gaining commercial access to the sea. “We are ready to allow Ethiopia to use two or three Somali ports for importing and exporting goods,” he said, adding that economic agreements could set tariffs and other charges. He said Addis Ababa had told Mogadishu it needed maritime access but had not yet submitted a formal request specifying what kind of arrangement it wanted. Neither government announced a port deal after the September 29 meeting, Somalia Today reported.
This follows the Türkiye-mediated Ankara Declaration that Mohamud and Abiy Ahmed signed in December 2024. Under that text, Somalia and Ethiopia reaffirmed respect for each other’s sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity. They also agreed to negotiate mutually advantageous commercial arrangements, including contracts, leases and similar mechanisms, that could give Ethiopia reliable access to and from the sea under Somalia’s sovereign authority. Technical talks under the framework began in Ankara in February 2025, but no final port agreement has been publicly announced. Somalia’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ali Mohamed Omar, said last month that the Ankara Declaration now governs relations between the neighbours and that Ethiopian access should run through arrangements agreed with Somalia.
The Ankara path followed a year-long crisis after Ethiopia’s January 2024 memorandum with Somaliland, the breakaway region of Somalia. Somaliland officials said that memorandum included a long-term coastal lease tied to possible Ethiopian recognition of Somaliland’s claimed independence. Mogadishu rejected the memorandum as a violation of its sovereignty. The Ankara Declaration shifted talks toward a commercial model under Somali sovereignty, yet Ethiopian officials and state institutions have increasingly used the phrase “sovereign access” when discussing Red Sea ambitions. Somalia Today said Education Minister Berhanu Nega described sovereign access as linked to Ethiopia’s long-term survival, and that President Taye Atske-Selassie told the United Nations General Assembly in September that reliable sea access was essential to Ethiopia’s economic transformation and that Addis Ababa was pursuing diplomatic means. Somalia Today noted that the Ankara text keeps any resulting arrangement under Somalia’s sovereign authority and does not grant Ethiopia sovereignty over a port or coastal territory. Mohamud’s latest offer stays in the commercial model. He did not name which two or three ports could open to Ethiopia, or set out leases, corridors or duration.
Birr Metrics, citing Ministry of Transport and Logistics figures released by State Minister Denge Boru, reported that the country moved 17.57 million metric tonnes of import and export cargo in the 2025/26 financial year, and that the Port of Djibouti handled 96.71 percent of cargo through maritime gateways, about 15.34 million tonnes. Berbera accounted for 2.74 percent, Tadjourah for 1.23 percent and the Mombasa-Moyale corridor for 0.56 percent. Road transport still carried about 80 percent of freight. The same ministry figures, Birr Metrics reported, listed regional security concerns, higher freight tariffs and pressure on transit corridors among the main challenges as Bab el-Mandeb disruptions continue to raise costs on the Djibouti corridor that still carries almost all of Ethiopia’s seaborne trade.
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