The dispute left South Sudan looking for alternative ways to transport its crude, including a possible route from Jonglei state through Ethiopia to the Port of Djibouti and a second one to the Kenyan port of Lamu.

NPR: South Sudan Military Says 163 Killed In Clashes

Since falling out with Eritrea and the port-state of Djibouti, Ethiopia, the region's landlocked superpower, has hit on Berbera as its easiest access to the sea.

ECONOMIST: Somaliland

Instead, food will have come through the overcrowded port in Djibouti, or else by way of Berbera, in Somaliland, and thence along a new road that stretches inland.

ECONOMIST: African drought: It pours, it never rains | The