Ethiopia-Somalia Rapprochement and its Potential Geopolitical Implications
April 13th, 2025
Via the Emirates Policy Center, commentary on Ethiopia-Somalia rapprochement: Key Takeaways The Somalia-Ethiopia rapprochement following the signing of the Ankara Declaration in late 2024 represents a substantial shift in alliance dynamics within the Horn of Africa. This development carries significant geopolitical and security implications, potentially altering the balance of power and influencing key actors. Ethiopia […]
Read more »Somalia Offers U.S. ‘Control’ Over Strategic Ports
March 28th, 2025
Via Semafor, a report on Somalia’s outreach to the U.S. over port access: Somalia’s government has offered the US “exclusive operational control” over strategic ports on the Gulf of Aden in a bid to derail any recognition by Washington of breakaway regions in the troubled Horn of Africa nation. It made the offer despite not […]
Read more »Moonshot: Turkey Building A Spaceport In Somalia
February 12th, 2025
Via The Economist, a report that Turkey is building a spaceport in Somalia: Alper Gezeravci’s first message from space was a patriotic one. “The future is in the skies,” he said from a Falcon 9 rocket on its 14-day mission in January 2024. The line is one of many attributed to Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder, […]
Read more »Ankara Declaration: A Positive Development Imbued with Regional Risks
January 31st, 2025
Via African Arguments, a look at the Ankara Declaration and what it may mean for Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Somalialand: Ethiopia and Somalia have agreed to de-escalate yearlong tensions in Türkiye-mediated negotiations resulting in the Ankara Declaration. The two countries agreed to forgo contentious issues, cooperate in mutually advantageous bilateral arrangements, and decided to finalize negotiations […]
Read more »World’s First WhatsAppocracy: Government By Social Media in Somalia
January 29th, 2025
Via The Economist, a look at how cheap data, social media and creativity are filling in for an absent state: Thirty years ago, making a phone call from Somalia meant crossing the border into better-connected Kenya or Ethiopia. Yet by 2004 the lawless nation had more telephone connections per capita than any other east African country. […]
Read more »Trump, Not Turkey, Likely to Decide Somaliland’s Fate
December 16th, 2024
Via Middle East – Told Slant substack, interesting analysis of Somaliland in light of the recent Turkish-brokered agreement between Somalia and Ethiopia: Somaliland Seen Critical to Containing Iranian, Chinese Expansion in the Red Sea Turkey last week announced it brokered an understanding between Ethiopia and Somalia, in a bid to turn down the heat on an […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.