Omnipresent in Africa, Turkey is increasingly establishing itself in a political role in Africa. President Erdoğan is now tackling the resolution of the conflict between Kenya and Somalia.
In 2005, the Turkish government declared “the year of Africa”. Turkey had, that year, obtained observer status at the African Union. Since then, Ankara has continued to intensify its trade, both commercial and diplomatic, with Africa. Where Turkey had only a dozen embassies on the continent, there are now 46 embassies. On the trade side, in twenty years, Turkish exports to Africa have increased from 5 to 16 billion dollars, with an important part for agriculture and agrifood.
After Libya, Turkey wants to play a role in the Horn
For several months, Turkey has taken an even more strategic place in Africa. In Libya, ten months before the curfew was signed, Ankara had sent forces to Libya to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Sarraj. "Without Turkey, Libya would have plunged into chaos," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu declared last December. In the North African country, Ankara also acted as a mediator, stressing "that there could be no military solution to the Libyan conflict and that the only outcome was political".
Wherever we talk about mediation in Africa, we inevitably find Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This is the case in Kenya and Somalia. Nairobi and Mogadishu are in dispute over the delimitation of their maritime borders. Here again, Turkey wants to have a role to play. According to Africa Intelligence, Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu will travel to Kenya in early March, then to Somalia. Meetings are planned with the leaders of the two countries, a few days before a crucial hearing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which must define once and for all the maritime border between the two States.
Turkish interests in Kenya and Somalia
At the center of the battle, hydrocarbons. In February 2019, Somalia announced that it wanted to auction several oil and gas fields. Problem: Kenya believed that some of these deposits were located in its maritime area. Since 2014, Nairobi and Mogadishu have been fighting over this piece of sea of a few thousand square kilometers located 180 kilometers off the border between Kenya and Somalia. Several countries and organizations have tried to mediate… without success. Already omnipresent in West Africa, Erdoğan hopes to place Turkish diplomacy at the center of the discussions.
It must be said that there are many interests in the Horn of Africa and in East Africa for Turkey, which has a military base in Somalia in particular. Ankara is also to supply equipment to Kenya, which has ordered 170 armored vehicles. Without forgetting the economic interests of Turkey, which manages the port of Mogadishu in particular. Erdoğan has every interest in the conflict between the two countries not escalating. This legal battle between Kenya and Somalia is also an opportunity to show the whole world that Turkey can play a major mediating role on the continent.