Somalia rejects mediation with Ethiopia gov’t over Somaliland port deal
Al Jazeera
The Ethiopia-Somalia feud continues with Mogadishu claiming its territorial integrity has been violated by the deal.
Somalia said on Thursday there was no room for mediation in a dispute with Ethiopia unless Addis Ababa cancelled a controversial deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland.
Tensions in the Horn of Africa have escalated after landlocked Ethiopia reached a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland on January 1 that gives it access to the sea.
“There is no space for mediation unless Ethiopia retracts its illegal MOU and reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its official social media accounts.
The comment comes after the African Union’s conflict resolution body on Wednesday discussed the crisis and called on the two countries “to exercise restraint, de-escalate and engage in meaningful dialogue towards finding a peaceful resolution of the matter”.
The eight-country trade bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is also holding an extraordinary summit in Uganda on Thursday on the Ethiopia-Somalia feud, as well as the conflict in Sudan. All four countries are part of the bloc, along with South Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya and Eritrea.
