Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has warned that there would be “a problem at a different level” if Ethiopia implements a maritime agreement it reached with Somaliland earlier this year.
Under the memorandum of understanding signed on January 1, Somaliland reportedly agreed to lease Ethiopia 20 kilometers of coastland on the Gulf of Aden for 50 years for commercial and military use.
In return, Ethiopia said it would recognize Somaliland as an independent country and give it an unspecified stake in Ethiopian Airlines.
But Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera on January 23 that that would be a wrong step on the part of Ethiopia.
“So far Ethiopians haven’t come into Somalia. If they will, then that will be a problem at a different level,” he said.
“This is a piece of land that belongs to Somalia and [we] will never yield to whatever pressure that comes on it,” he added.
The Somali president also disclosed to Al Jazeera that he discussed the deal with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during a trip to Cairo earlier this month.
“We haven’t discussed the Egyptian military coming to Somalia and we believe that the problem has not reached [that point] yet,” he said.
“And that’s why we’re warning [Ethiopia]: don’t do it, please.”
Landlocked Ethiopia has relied on its neighbors for its imports and exports since Eritrea seceded in the early 1990s.
Its deal with Somaliland, which is internationally considered part of Somalia, has been widely condemned, including by the Arab League and Egypt.
Others, such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the US, Qatar, Turkey and the European Union, have urged Ethiopia to respect Mogadishu’s sovereignty.
