Somaliland signs agreement with Ethiopia to take a stake in Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines is set to obtain a new stakeholder after a Memorandum of Understanding for Partnership and Cooperation was signed by Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed and the president of Somaliland, Muse Bihe Abdi. Although the East African nation is not officially recognised by the United Nations, the territory of Somaliland will now extend port access to Ethiopia, allowing its neighbour to ‘obtain a permanent and reliable naval base in the Gulf of Aden’ through a lease agreement. A statement from the Ethiopian Government Communication Service confirmed that Somaliland will ‘derive an equivalent share of the lease for Ethiopian Airlines’.