In French Somaliland, by contrast, neither these secondary effects nor the direct actions of the Dervishes made any sensible impact. And throughout this elsewhere turbulent period the French devoted their energies to the imaginative project of securing Ethiopia's transit trade for their colony by the construction of a line of rail from Jibuti to the Ethiopian hinterland. Despite the interruption of the Great War in which a French Somali battalion distinguished itself, the Franco-Ethiopian railway reached the Ethiopian capital by 1917. The successful conclusion of this great enterprise, the only line of rail in the whole area, guaranteed the future prosperity of the Côte and its capital and port, Jibuti. Equally, it ensured the gradual eclipse of Zeila as the traditional outlet for much of the hinterland's external trade.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 260