EGYPT CALLS ON ARAB NATIONS TO REJECT SOMALILAND RED SEA DEAL

▶ Cairo is against Addis Ababa gaining access to waterway through breakaway region

Arab foreign ministers met yesterday to discuss a deal between Ethiopia and the breakaway region of Somaliland to grant Addis Ababa access to the Red Sea coastline, a move that Mogadishu has strongly condemned.

Somalia, which requested the meeting, maintains that Somaliland’s deal with Ethiopia is a breach of international law and its sovereignty.

The move to convene the meeting was supported by 12 member states, said Arab League assistant secretary general Hossam Zaki. The meeting was held virtually, rather than at the organisation’s Cairo headquarters, because of the ministers’ prior engagements, he said.

Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said the deal was the latest in a series of unilateral actions by Ethiopia that ignored the interests of fellow African governments.

“It has proved right the Egyptian view regarding the effect of these policies on regional stability and raising tension among its nations,” he said.

“Ethiopia has become a source of unrest in its regional surroundings.”

Mr Shoukry called on Arab and international parties to reject any moves that compromise Somalia’s sovereignty and vowed that Egypt would offer Mogadishu “what it needs from support and training” to “safeguard its sovereignty”.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but remains internationally unrecognised.

Somalia’s Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said the deal between Ethiopia and the breakaway region betrayed its crude and aggressive ambitions to hurt Arab national security.

“This unilateral move by Ethiopia poses a threat to Arab national security and Red Sea shipping,” Somalia’s ambassador to the Arab League Elias Abu Bakr added.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland’s President Muse Bihi Abdi signed the agreement for access to the sea on January 1 this year. As part of the deal, Somaliland would lease a 20km stretch of its coastline to Ethiopia.

Somaliland’s Defence Minister Abdiqani Mohamoud Ateye resigned over the deal.

He accused Ethiopia of attempting to seize and control the stretch of coastline without proper negotiations.

“Abiy Ahmed wants to take it without renting or owning it,” he said in televised interview on Sunday. “Ethiopia remains our number one enemy.”

With a population of more than 120 million, Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country in the world and relies heavily on ports in Djibouti for foreign trade. Egypt, which has a long-running dispute with Ethiopia over Nile waters, was the most critical of Ethiopia, primarily out of fear Addis Ababa could establish a military presence in the Red Sea, threatening Cairo’s interests.

Sources told The National an Egyptian security delegation travelled to Somalia last week to discuss how to assist the Mogadishu government in handling the crisis.