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Tuesday January 2, 2024
Mogadishu (HOL) – Somalia’s Lower and Upper House lawmakers will convene an emergency meeting in Mogadishu on Tuesday to make decisions regarding Monday’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ethiopia and the self-declared republic of Somaliland, which grants landlocked Ethiopia access to the Red Sea.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will address members of both Houses. Federal Somali lawmaker Mursal Khalif stated on X that he believes Somalia “will respond appropriately to news of Ethiopia infringing on our territorial integrity.”
The agreement was announced in Addis Ababa, where Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi is visiting. According to Ethiopia, Ahmed and Abdi signed the “Memorandum of Understanding,” or MoU, for the partnership in the Ethiopian capital.
Under the MoU, Ethiopia gains naval and commercial access to Berbera, a strategic port on Somaliland’s coast along the Gulf of Aden. In exchange, Ethiopia will recognize Somaliland’s independence, a significant move given Somaliland’s three-decade quest for international recognition.
The office of the spokesperson of Somaliland’s president posted a purported recording of Abdi saying that Somaliland has agreed to lease 20 kilometres of coastline along the Red Sea in Somaliland to Ethiopia. Without specifying the location of the piece of land, Abdi said Ethiopia would have a marine force base on the leased land.
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