The Ethiopians trade with Somaliland and use its port of Berbera but hold back from endorsing full independence.

ECONOMIST: Somalia��s future

Since falling out with Eritrea and the port-state of Djibouti, Ethiopia, the region's landlocked superpower, has hit on Berbera as its easiest access to the sea.

ECONOMIST: Somaliland

Its trade officials plan to do more business via the port of Berbera in Somaliland, a mostly unrecognised breakaway from Somalia, and with Port Sudan in Sudan.

ECONOMIST: Shipping in east Africa

Instead, food will have come through the overcrowded port in Djibouti, or else by way of Berbera, in Somaliland, and thence along a new road that stretches inland.

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Last year's famine in Ethiopia set a precedent, with 100, 000 tonnes of food aid coming through Berbera, which had previously been written off as too small and too decrepit.

ECONOMIST: Somaliland

Somaliland's trump card is its port at Berbera.

ECONOMIST: Somaliland