The Horn Of Africa States: A Resource Rich Region – OpEd
When discussing the economies of the Horn of Africa States region, as is the case with the rest of Africa, almost all analysts always talk in terms of unverified and unfiltered bad economic indicators. Major topics include among others anaemic economic growth levels, low per capita incomes, widespread poverty, and low GDP numbers. These reports are stubbornly repeated, which colors the region as eternally sick.
This leads to the continuous political upheavals in the region, which take on different colors, mostly ethnic, but also religious at times, such as the terrorism in the region would indicate. It is a sad story of the region, but the rest of Africa is not much different, in this respect.
The Horn of Africa States region is home to over some 160 million people and they all still live and thrive, and the number is still growing. This must be an indication that this large population is still engaged in different kinds of economic activities – trade, farming, agro-pastoralism, fishing and some kind of manufacturing and services. The measures reported, therefore, do not truly represent the actual economic activities of the region, as at least a majority of the economic activities of the population are not reported which, therefore, falsifies and negates the numbers given on the region and elsewhere in Africa.
The region enjoys substantial resources. The location of the region alone is a major resource. It is the very Horn of Africa and overlooks some 4,700 km of coasts and has an extensive of nearly a million square km marine space – marked by its warm, blue color, and beautiful beaches, which could be a home for a sizeable and affordable tourist industry or a major shipping industry involving shipbuilding or servicing and repairs or ports for importing and exporting Africa’s import needs and production respectively. It could also be a central region for world aviation industry involving travel and cargo transport between the countries of the East and West and between the countries of the North and South.
The natural resources of the region include agriculture, which can involve not only subsistence but also commercial activities. The region is reported to have been the cradle of humanity and, therefore, was always able to feed the populations that live on it, from time immemorable. Note that there are indigenous crops that are unique to the region such as the teff cereal which feeds a large population of the region. The region also tamed the camel and still owns the largest population of this mammal in the world. The region, indeed, produces its own meat and milk and other foods which can feed not only the region but also others. There is the other cereals which it grows such as wheat, corn, barley, fruits such as banana, grapefruits, and indigenous varieties of mangoes and others.
Despite the negative impact of climate change, agriculture still remains the main employer of the population of the region and produces most food. Many NGOs have tried to limit the food production capability of the region by bringing imported foods as aid for the populations and building displacement camps everywhere, but its own agricultural production still remains the main source of food for the region’s population.
The fishing industry of the region has declined over the past several decades because of the civil war, mainly in Somalia, the country with the longest coast and hence the involvement of many foreign shipping fleets which came to deplete the region’s rich fisheries. This gave rise to the recent piracy in the Horn of Africa States, which is no longer a threat to the region’s shipping. Other forces in the region such as the Houthi disruptive activities and hence the forces which either support them or oppose them, currently pose the most danger to the region’s marine space.
The marine resources of the region does offer not only food but is also reported to contain vast oil and gas reserves which may compliment the Gulf states production of these commodities and other minerals as well. Türkiye’s research vessel Oruc Reis is already present in the region, off the Somalia coast to explore for oil and gas in the marine space of the region. A find of these energy commodities would, no doubt, change the destiny and future of the region and particularly Somalia.
The region does contain a rich biodiversity with many endemic species of both plants and animal life and has produced on commercial basis frankincense, incense, myrrh and dragon’s blood tree for thousands of years. It still does. The region is also reported to own substantial presence of many other minerals, which among others include silver and gold, uranium and lithium, cobalt and copper, iron ore and coal, molybdenum and columbite and many others, including gems of different types and rare earths.
The region’s renewable energy in terms of hydropower, wind, geothermal, and solar are also vast and it could not use them locally but can also export them, should the necessary stable environment be created. But it seems other hands are hard at work such that this does not happen, which appear to be the main cause for the instability of the region.
The populations of the region have almost deforested the lands, which were greener just half a century ago. Most of the general landscape of the region appears to becoming like Arabia or the Sahel belt – desertic and devoid of large vegetation. However, there seems to be also a hidden wealth beneath the soil of the region. It does contain vast amounts of underground water reservoirs that could last the region for centuries to come. A managed agricultural production and reafforestation of the region would do the job should the political elite and leadership settle down to work on the national and regional interests and preservation in the place of the personal preservation which most of them seem to be engaged in these past decades.
To summarize, the Horn of Africa States region enjoys a sizeable population, and hence manpower and market. It has the capacity and the resource base for its food production to feed its growing populations but also others. The region is also endowed with vast energy sources of whatever kind, both fossil and renewable, and it has the capacity to protect itself from others should it be working together instead of emphasis on the ethnic diversity which should have been seen as a blessing instead of being a curse, as it presents itself these days.
We know and it is clear that most of the leaders of the region are either authoritarian or autocratic. Others are trying to emulate the existing ones and their methods of overstaying in power. But this does not negate them to work together. Some are old while others are young and perhaps have different outlooks to life. However, this does not also negate them to work for the betterment of the populations which they rule and perhaps the best legacy they can leave in the history books should be a region no longer at war with itself or with others and developing through the creation of better exploitation of the vast resources of the region, both human and material.
