Faisal Ali and agencies
Monday January 22, 2024
The president of Egypt, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has expressed his support for Somalia in a dispute over an offer by the breakaway northern region of Somaliland to give land-locked Ethiopia access to its coast in exchange for recognition of its independence.
In his strongest statement yet on the issue at a press conference in Cairo alongside the president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Sisi said: “My message to Ethiopia is that trying to seize a piece of land to control it is something no one will agree to.”
He added that his country would be ready to provide “support in case of aggression against one of the Arab countries, especially when brotherly countries ask us to stand by them”, raising concerns that Cairo may become directly involved in an escalating dispute between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa.
Relations between Somalia and Ethiopia have deteriorated since early January, when Somaliland and Ethiopia announced a memorandum of understanding that bypassed the Somali government, which has not exercised control over the self-declared republic since 1991.
Officials from Somaliland have claimed that the prospective agreement would involve Ethiopia gaining a naval base along its Gulf of Aden coastline in exchange full recognition. Ethiopia has remained tight-lipped on this aspect of the deal amid growing international pressure, though several officials have hinted at their support for Somaliland’s independence.
In an interview with the Observer this month, Somaliland’s foreign minister, Essa Kayd, said that unless the region receives recognition as an independent state, “nothing is going to happen”. “Ethiopia needs sea access and we need recognition, so you can see how these needs can be dealt with,” Kayd added.
Ethiopia has been landlocked since 1993, when its own restive northern region of Eritrea declared independence, making the country reliant on neighbouring Djibouti for virtually all of its international trade.
Somalia has mobilised the support of its international partners since Ethiopia and Somaliland announced the deal on New Year’s Day. Egypt, which has seen its own ties with Ethiopia deteriorate over a dam that Ethiopia has built on the Blue Nile, has been vocal in its opposition to the memorandum.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said on Wednesday that Ethiopia was “a source of instability” in the region and called on it to respect Somalia’s territorial integrity.
The Somali government has rejected calls for mediation between it and Ethiopia over the deal until Addis Ababa renounces the pact and reverses course on the memorandum, which Somali officials have called an attempt to “annex” its territory.
The Somali president raised the issue at a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, a 120-member bloc of countries, telling delegates in Uganda that the agreement between Somaliland and Ethiopia allowed the latter to “annex a corridor to establish a naval base on our coastline” and calling the deal a “clear violation of Somalia’s sovereignty”.
Heads of state from across the region gathered in Uganda on Thursday at a meeting called by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an east African inter-governmental organisation, to tackle the fallout from the memorandum.
The prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, did not attend in person, but the regional body, in which Ethiopia exercises significant influence, issued a cautiously worded statement that called on all members to respect one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On Wednesday, the US national security spokesperson, John Kirby, expressed concern that further tension between Somalia and Ethiopia, which Somalia has threatened might lead to war, could undermine broader efforts in the fight against al-Shabaab, an Islamist insurgency group in Somalia.