President of Somalia: We will defend ourselves if Ethiopia goes ahead with the Berbera port deal. Somalia acted in defiance and fears that the agreement would lead to further destabilization in the Horn of Africa.
Somalia and several Western countries, including the United States, say the Ethiopian port deal has boosted Al-Shabaab's recruitment efforts. The Somali president told Reuters that according to them and according to intelligence sources, some of the new recruits are nationalists who joined because of the recent port deal that Ethiopia concluded with Somaliland.