Landlocked Ethiopia asserts control of East Africa, builds navy to fortify defense force

Atwine Allen, East Africa |

As part of efforts to assert its influence in the horn of Africa, landlocked Ethiopia is planning to build a navy, being part of the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's military reforms. The PM said this during a briefing of the heads of the country’s National Defence force.

Dr.Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian PM

Recall that Ethiopia lost its access to the Red Sea nearly three decades ago. The country also disbanded its navy in 1991 after its then-province, Eritrea, seceded following a three-decade war for independence.

Abiy’s government in May agreed to develop Port Sudan on the Red Sea and agreed with Djibouti to swap shares in state-owned ports, airlines, and telecommunications. It also agreed to acquire land at Kenya’s Lamu Port for “logistical facilitation,” according to a joint communiqué issued after a meeting between Abiy and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Further investigation shows that the Ethiopian government had already annexed the northern part of Somalia, which is now known as Somaliland and there are indication that that would make it the sixth state government of Ethiopia.

Earlier this year, Ethiopia took a stake in a port in Somaliland, a semi-autonomous part of Somalia that aspires to statehood and borders Djibouti. Somaliland will host a naval base for the United Arab Emirates.

According to Fana Broadcasting Corporation, ruling party funded media organization, PM Abiy was quoted to have said “Following the efforts made to build capacity of our national defense, we built one of the stronger ground and air forces in Africa We should build our naval force capacity in the future.”

He said the military reforms should take into account current fast changing world, socio-economic and political situation in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia currently has a civilian Ethiopian Maritime Training Institute on Lake Tana. The institute trains more than 500 marine engineers and electro-technical officers each year and plans to increase this to more than 1,000 officers annually.

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