By The Arab League and the United States have rejected a Red Sea access deal between Ethiopia and Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland, saying the pact violates Somalia’s sovereignty.
The League “rejects and condemns any memorandums of understanding that violate Somalia’s sovereignty or attempts to benefit from the fragility of the Somali internal situation and faltering Somali negotiations,” the Cairo-based group said in a statement on Wednesday.
It warned against exploiting conditions “to extract part of Somali territory in violation of the rules and principles of international law, and in a way that threatens the territorial integrity of Somalia as a whole.”
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on Monday between Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, giving Ethiopia access to Red Sea ports.
Abiy’s office hailed the pact as “historic” and said it is “intended to serve as a framework for the multi-sectoral partnership between the two sides.”
But Somalia rejected Ethiopia’s Red Sea port deal with Somaliland on Tuesday and called the agreement a threat to good neighborliness and a violation of its sovereignty.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called his Egyptian counterpart late on Tuesday in the wake of the tensions between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa concerning the deal.
Source: TRT
