Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, Somalia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, over the weekend was quoted as saying that “If the Ethiopian government is pushing the effort to implement the agreement with Somaliland, his country will start to support rebels groups fighting in Ethiopia.”
The minister disclosed the plan to a local TV amid security challenges Somalia has been facing for decades to the point that a peace keeping mission was needed in which Ethiopia played a crucial role. The country is still lacking effective control over many areas of Somalia.
“We have not reached that stage yet…there is still a hope that ‘it has a solution.’ However, if Ethiopia continues to push the path it took, talking to rebels and standing with them is an open option for us,” he added.
Recently, Somalia signed a military pact with Egypt which is deploying 10,000 troops. Multiple rounds of Egyptian military flights to Mogadishu were reported over the past three weeks and they are believed to have delivered firearms.
On Friday, news emerged that Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia took control of airports in Somalia except the one in Mogadishu in an attempt to ban further deployment of Egyptian troops in the war-torn east African nation.
Apart from Egypt, Somalia also fostered relations with Eritrea – a country that has provided military training to thousands of Somali soldiers – and in Eritrean soil. As is the case with Egypt, the relation between Ethiopia and Eritrea deteriorated once again ; this time it became more apparent after Abiy Ahmed’s government announced interest in the pursuit of access to the Red Sea.
MG/abj/APA