On January 1st 2024, the President of the self-declared state of Somaliland announced that he had made a historic deal with the president of Ethiopia that would benefit both parties. As part of the deal, Somaliland agreed to give landlocked Ethiopia a way to access the Gulf of Aden. In return, Ethiopia agreed to recognize Somaliland as its own independent state. Shortly after the announcement, however, the Ethiopian government responded more cautiously, claiming that it was making "an in-depth a