Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said that Ethiopia was seeking to distract attention from its internal problems when it signed a controversial maritime pact with Somaliland in January.
“The Ethiopian leadership is diverting (attention from) their internal problems to outside so that the people say ‘we will recognize this region and we will get access to the sea’,” Mohamud told an international forum in the Turkish city of Antalya that opened on March 1.
“Unfortunately, where the leaders have internal problems, … they want to divert the attention of the local people to outside problems,” he added.
The Somaliland-Ethiopia deal envisioned Ethiopia getting access to Somaliland’s coast.
In return, Ethiopia agreed to recognize Somaliland.
Somalia has rejected the deal as a violation of its territorial integrity.
The agreement, inked between Somaliland and Ethiopia on January 1, has led to heightened tensions in the Horn of Africa.
Several countries have called on Ethiopia and Somalia to deescalate the tensions and respect other other’s territorial integrity.
