MOGADISHU: Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Somalia on Thursday and met with its President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to reinforce their fragile reconciliation after a row over ties to a separatist region.
\nThey discussed topics \u201cincluding peace and security, economy, diplomacy and potential to build joint infrastructure,\u201d Ahmed said in a message on X afterwards.
\nThe Somali government said in a statement ahead of the meeting that they would also discuss \u201cthe fight against terrorism in the region.\u201d
\nResidents reported mortar attacks in areas near Mogadishu airport shortly after the visiting delegation passed through it en route to the presidential palace.
\nIt was unclear whether the attacks were linked to Abiy\u2019s arrival.
\nSecurity officials at the airport said Abiy\u2019s delegation safely left the airport without incident.
\nSomalia\u2019s security situation is highly volatile, with the Islamist Al-Shabab group maintaining a presence in the country.
\n\u201cTwo rounds of mortar shells landed in Bulohubey neighborhood. An elderly woman was wounded after the shell exploded close to her house,\u201d local resident Abdiraham Hassan told AFP.
\nA member of Ethiopia\u2019s delegation told AFP they had not been aware of any mortar attacks.
\nTension between the two countries mounted last year after Ethiopia struck a deal with the Somali breakaway region of Somaliland to gain access to the sea.
\nBut they announced a full restoration of diplomatic ties in January following a deal mediated by Turkiye.
\nThe two countries said in a joint statement that Thursday\u2019s visit \u201creinforces the normalization of bilateral nations.\u201d
\nAbiy said in his post after the meeting: \u201cRegional thinking and collaboration are essential, and we are ready to work with Somalia to make this a reality.\u201d
\nA source in the Somali presidential palace told AFP on Wednesday, on condition of anonymity, that Abiy\u2019s visit was \u201cpart of a broader effort to complete and implement the Ankara agreement,\u201d referring to the deal struck in the Turkish capital in December.
\nSomaliland said its January 2024 deal with Ethiopia would have led to Addis Ababa recognizing its independence \u2014 though that was never confirmed \u2014 in exchange for a long-desired naval base for the land-locked nation.
\nMogadishu was furious over the deal and withdrew its ambassador from Ethiopia.
\nFollowing the rapprochement, the fate of Ethiopia\u2019s deal with Somaliland remains uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOGADISHU: Ethiopia\u2019s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Somalia on Thursday and met with its President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to reinforce their fragile reconciliation after a row over ties to a separatist region. They discussed topics \u201cincluding peace and security, economy, diplomacy and potential to build joint infrastructure,\u201d Ahmed said in a message on X afterwards. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77750,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77733\/revisions\/77750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}