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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi said his country will protect Somalia against Ethiopia’s move to access the seaport of Somaliland as he held talks in Cairo yesterday (Sunday) with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi said his country will protect Somalia against Ethiopia’s move to access the seaport of Somaliland as he held talks in Cairo yesterday (Sunday) with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. It may be recalled that El-Sissi already supported the cause of Somalia by rejecting the deal that was signed earlier this month between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to give landlocked Ethiopia access to its coast. El-Sissi reiterated his stand during the meeting between the two heads of state by saying that Egypt would support Somalia in defending the sovereignty of its land.
In a strongly worded statement at a press briefing along with Somalin President, El-Sissi observed that he would not allow its brothers (Somalians) to be intimidated, especially when they asked for help. Though he did not name Ethiopia in the statement, analysts say, the threat was borne out of the enduring rivalry between the two countries, particularly in the case of Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia has built across the White Nile. Egypt said that it was a unilateral decision by Ethiopia and presented an existential threat to the Northern African country.
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Somaliland, a region strategically located by the Gulf of Aden, broke away from Somalia in 1991 as the country collapsed into warlord-led conflict. The region has maintained its government despite its lack of international recognition. While in Cairo, the visiting president took time to meet the Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday. During the discussions, the Somalian head of state said that his country would not allow any deal on the Red Sea without its consent since it has a large geopolitical stake in the Red Sea while adding that it would not allow an inch of this territory to be seized by another state without the consent of the Somali sovereign state.
