Ethiopia defense minister visits Somalia in sign of detente
NAIROBI: Ethiopia’s defense minister traveled to Somalia on Thursday, a senior official in Mogadishu said, the first bilateral visit since relations nosedived a year ago over an Ethiopian plan to build a naval base in a breakaway Somali region.
Somalia’s state minister for foreign affairs, Ali Omar, confirmed Ethiopian Defense Minister Aisha Mohammed Mussa’s visit in a message to Reuters but did not say what she was there to discuss. Ethiopia’s government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Ethiopia has up to 10,000 troops in Somalia to fight militants from Al-Shabab, but Mogadishu has threatened to expel them if Addis Ababa did not renounce an agreement it reached a year ago with the breakaway Somaliland region.
The preliminary deal called for Somaliland to lease a stretch of coastline for an Ethiopian naval base and commercial port in exchange for possible recognition of Somaliland’s independence.
Somaliland has had effective autonomy since 1991 but its independence has not been recognized by any other country. Mogadishu considers it an integral part of its territory and called its deal with Ethiopia an act of aggression.
