Trans-border trade in the Horn of Africa1 represents a particularly important and
challenging unofficial, informal sector activity. On the one hand, it epitomizes the
essence of informal or ‘shadow’ trade, operating along remote borders in a vast region
where government presence is particularly weak or, in some cases (Somalia), absent. In
many instances it represents the only type of exchange in the area, since extremely poor
regional infrastructure and communications impede official trade between neighbouring
states. Illustrative of this reality, is the fact that official annual exports of cattle from
Ethiopia, the most populous country in the region, are less than 2,000, when in fact
more than 25 times this amount are unofficially exported across borders (see Teka et al.
1999).