Egypt gets Somalia and Eritrea to join a new partnership despite problems in Addis Ababa
There are a lot of problems in the Horn of Africa right now, but on Thursday, the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, and Somalia were going to meet in Asmara for a three-way meeting.
More worries about safety and stability in the unstable area have grown since Ethiopia signed a controversial deal with Somaliland in January, giving it long-needed access to the sea.
The maritime agreement made Mogadishu very angry and brought to light regional rivalries at a time when ties between Ethiopia and Somalia were already bad.
President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia will meet on X to talk about “strengthening the ties between the three countries as well as matters of regional security and stability.”
Mohamud, who has been to Eritrea before, had separate talks with Isaias soon after he got there late Wednesday night, the ministry said.
They talked about the need to strengthen teamwork “in the heavy tasks of the maintenance of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence, and unity of Somalia; which remains a prerequisite for its development against the backdrop of enormous challenges in the past two decades” , it said.
The government of Sisi is supporting Somalia in its dispute with Ethiopia. He arrived by plane on Thursday and will meet with Isaias before the three-party meeting, the ministry said.
Under the deal between Addis Ababa and Somaliland, Ethiopia, which is one of the world’s most landlocked countries, would rent a stretch of shoreline from Somaliland to build a naval base and port.
But Mogadishu, along with the rest of the world, doesn’t recognize Somaliland’s independence statement from 1991 and has called it an attack on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In response, Somalia grew closer to Egypt, a rival of Ethiopia. In August, the two countries signed a big military deal, and Cairo promised troops for a new African Union mission against the jihadist group Al-Shabaab.
