Bin Laden’s Djibouti-Yemen Bridge

EDITORIAL

This week new reports have surfaced that the government of Djibouti and Tareq Bin Laden held more talks about building a bridge linking Djibouti and Yemen. The BBC wrote (Feb.22, 2008): “The proposed bridge would carry a six-lane motorway and a railway… New cities would be built at either end of the bridge.”

The people behind this project are focusing on potential economic benefits for Yemen, Djibouti, and the region. Given the endemic poverty in the region, this is a strong argument. But there are a lot of concerns that should be addressed before undertaking such a project. Foremost among these concerns is that of security. For example, it is a fact that right now Yemen, Osama Bin Laden’s ancestral home, has much bigger terrorist presence than the Horn of Africa. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that linking the Horn of Africa and Yemen would increase terrorist activities, or at least terrorist influence, in the Horn of Africa.

Although the American government has not made any public comments on the issue, the Jamestown Foundation has pointed out the danger that building a bridge between Djibouti and Yemen would pose to the American military that is based in Djibouti. http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373710

Oddly enough, none of the governments of the Horn of Africa (other than Djibouti which is pushing this project in a very devious way) have said anything about the proposed bridge in public.

No doubt, building one of the longest bridges in the world with an estimated cost of $70 bn, is an ambitious project. But ambition has to answer the many questions raised by reality.

Source: Somaliland Times

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