By Solomon "Customs" Bridges
Ethiopia has no coastline. It has not had one since Eritrea split away in 1993, and ever since, roughly 95 percent of its trade has moved through a single overworked corridor: the road and rail line to the Red Sea port of Djibouti. Now a new $660 million fuel pipeline aims to widen that lifeline, according to BBC Business.
The project, backed by Africa's richest man, would run fuel from Djibouti's port inland to Ethiopia, according to the BBC report. For a country of more than 120 million people that imports virtually all its refined petroleum, the pipeline promises steadier supply and, in theory, insulation from the kind of fuel shortages that have periodically rattled Ethiopian markets when trucks queue for days at the border.
For Djibouti — a nation of under a million people whose entire economy is built around its port and the foreign militaries that lease bases along its shores — the deal means construction jobs now and transit fees for decades to come. The tiny country has long made its living as the region's tollbooth; a fuel pipeline only deepens that role.
The arrangement is a reminder of how thoroughly landlocked nations depend on the goodwill and infrastructure of their coastal neighbors. Ethiopia's government has periodically floated the idea of securing its own port access, including through disputed agreements with Somaliland that alarmed Somalia and its allies. A pipeline through Djibouti doesn't resolve that ambition, but it does buy time — and fuel security — while the harder diplomatic questions sit unanswered.
[The BBC report did not specify a construction timeline or financing structure for the pipeline; those details should be confirmed as the project moves forward.]
Nothing happens 'over there' anymore.
— Compiled from reporting by BBC Business.
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