Abiy of Ethiopia talks with President Mohamud on his visit to Somalia

Following a breakthrough in tense relations, Somalia’s president said that Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrived in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday to meet with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

When Ethiopia revealed plans to lease a portion of the coastline in Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland province in January 2024, the relationship worsened.

Ethiopia intended to provide a commercial port and naval facility in return for potential recognition of Somaliland’s independence.

Somalia bolstered relations with Ethiopia’s bitter enemies Egypt and Eritrea, threatened to expel its peacekeepers, and accused Ethiopia of compromising its territorial integrity.

Despite the closure of all roads surrounding the high-security complex, four local residents and the media reported that Mogadishu airport was struck by at least one mortar shell just before Abiy’s jet touched down on Thursday.

At negotiations chaired by Ankara in December, the two nations decided to end the conflict and promised to come to economic agreements that would give landlocked Ethiopia “reliable, secure and sustainable access to and from the sea.”

By the end of February, they also decided to start technical talks.
“The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation for mutual benefit,” the governments stated in a joint statement following the meeting between Mohamud and Abiy.

Photographs released by the administration show the two leaders grinning as they shook hands on the airport runway earlier Thursday, amid people holding the flags of the two neighboring nations.

Mohamud’s travel to Addis Ababa was one month before to Abiy’s trip.

Islamist al Shabaab insurgents have been waging a protracted war in Somalia, attempting to topple the country’s precarious central government.