In addition, new French measures in the Côte, undertaken with the object of advancing the previously neglected ‘Afar community, had the effect – which in Somali eyes they seemed designed to promote – of driving a wedge between the two peoples. Finally, and perhaps most significantly of all, in their hostility to the Pan-Somali aim, French policies were closely allied with those of Ethiopia, and sustained by the mutual interest of both countries in the prosperous port of Jibuti and the line of rail connecting it to the Ethiopian hinterland.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 454