Ethiopia sent a plane to land in Somaliland, supposedly a sovereign state from Somalia. Somalia has claimed that this territory is property of Somalia and that Somaliland is a possession of Somalia. Somaliland has its own police force, currency, and holds its own elections, yet it is still not formally recognized as a sovereign nation by any country. Somaliland signed an agreement on January 1st to lease one of its ports to Ethiopia in exchange for a stake in Ethiopian airlines, as well as possible recognition of Somaliland as a country. Somalia claims that this move by Ethiopia is an act of aggression and that Ethiopia had broken international rules since every flight that goes through a country’s airspace must be approved by that country. The plane entered what is supposed to be Somaliland airspace, not Somali airspace.
I think that all the countries in this situation are acting immaturely. Somalia shouldn’t care whether Ethiopia recognizes Somaliland as a country or not, they’re just being stubborn. A compromise needs to be made and the United States is probably going to be the one to make it. The United States does not want war with Somalia and so they will not recognize Somaliland as a country, it will be interesting to see if the United States remains neutral in this or if they decide to support one side or the other. I believe that the United States will remain neutral so as to not cause any wars or step on anybody’s toes.
In class we talk about how other countries getting involved in wars can complicate things and have effects we may not have calculated. If the United States takes a side in this conflict, China or Russia may take the other side and then we would be in a proxy war with another superpower in the world. The United States needs to be careful about how they’re involved in this because it may have consequences that cannot be foreseen.