“Ethiopia will not establish a military base in Somalia under any circumstances”, said Hassan Sheikh the President of Somalia today.
He criticized Ethiopia’s desire to use the Red Sea, saying that although it is appropriate, Ethiopia’s approach is not correct. The President of Somalia stated that his government does not oppose Ethiopia’s desire for access to the sea, but Somalia does not accept the methods used by Ethiopia to achieve its goal.
In particular, Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud said that Ethiopia is directly negotiating with the Republic of Somaliland in violation of his government’s administration. President Hassan Sheikh made all these remarks addressing the East African Community Conference (EACON 2024) held in Mogadishu today.
He added that Ethiopia is welcome to have access to Somalia sea. “The question is how?”, he asked during a speech about “Strengthening Regional Cooperation in East African Community” in Mogadishu.
“If Ethiopia wants access to to Somalia sea we welcome it but we want Ethiopia to have access the same way that Uganda has access to Kenya sea, the same way that Burundi and Rwanda have access to Tanzania sea…,and the same way Ethiopia has access to Djibouti sea,” he said.
“We are not accepting anything beyond that,” he added. “Forget about deploying naval forces in Somalia and having a naval base in Somalia”, he claimed.
In January this year, Ethiopia signed an MoU with Somaliland under which Ethiopia would gain access to sea through Somaliland in return for Ethiopia recognizing Somaliland as a country. Somalia calls the MoU a violation of its territorial integrity and sovereignty. In recent weeks, both Ethiopian and Somaliland ministers implied that in coming days final agreement could be signed between Ethiopia and Somaliland.
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