AFRICA/SOMALIA – From the port of Garacad a road that brings development and hope to the entire area

Thursday, 8 September 2022

Garowe (Agenzia Fides) – There is recent news of an important road project launched in Somali Puntland that will favor strong development of the area.
It is a regional project with strategic importance that involves the Horn of Africa, in particular Ethiopia. The new road will connect the new port located in the historical city of Garacad, 700 km from Mogadishu, with the city of Galcayo and Galdogob, on the Ethiopian border. Once completed, it will allow the goods arriving in the port (Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden) to arrive in the country in a short space of time. The aim of the project is to serve the Horn of Africa, central Somalia and the south-eastern region of Ethiopia by providing new trade routes accessible to the rest of the world, in particular to the Persian Gulf and Asia, also helping the populations of Oromia, Ogaden, far from the port services of Djibouti.
“The Administration of the port of Garacad hopes to create commercial relations and relations with the entire maritime world, a new port needs international relations”, said Prof. Sonkor Geyre, President of the IFSA Institute of Federalism and Security Analysis. “It will thus be possible to sort out goods and goods useful for the humanitarian crises of the entire area. In addition to the contacts already underway – explains Sonkor – we are inviting maritime authorities from all over the world to visit the port which will be inaugurated in October. This is the largest project in Somalia in the last 40 years”.
The port of Garacad, in the Modug region, borders Ethiopia to the west and the Somali regions to the north and south, and is a development point for the whole area. The Garacad-Galkacyo-Galdogob corridor crosses an area inhabited by about 1,000,000 Somalis, most of them farmers in an area under development.
The study of the 309 km that will connect the cities is carried out by the Puntland Highway Authority, the government body responsible for road transport and infrastructure in the state of Puntland in Somalia, and sees the participation of the KAAD Institute and foreign engineers and will allow transport goods arriving in the port of Garacad as far as Ethiopia. (GF/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 8/9/2022)

“Somalia will open a deep-water port on its northern coast next month, with a road link forging a new trade route connecting Ethiopia’s south-eastern region with the city of Gara’ad.
The development is part of a $531 million investment plan aimed at boosting the export of livestock, fish, minerals and agricultural commodities, according to Saed Faadi, the chief executive officer of Wadagsan LLC, the developer.

The first two deep-water berths in the Puntland state’s city will be capable of docking 40,000-ton container ships and provide services such as modern loading equipment, refrigerated storage facilities and feeding grounds for animals.
“The port will also provide easy access to food imports from the outside world,” Faadi said in an interview. “This will allow food to be less expensive and enhance food security in the region, which is plagued by droughts and famine.”

The Gara’ad port will be the Horn of Africa nation’s fifth deep-water facility providing access to the Indian Ocean, but it’s the closest to Ethiopia, a landlocked country of 115 million people whose economy was one of the fastest growing in the world before the coronavirus pandemic and conflict curbed expansion.”