The Memorandum of Understanding Between Ethiopia and Somaliland is Null and Void

[Deeq A.]

The secessionist entity led by Muse Bihi (right) cannot lease a coastal district to Ethiopia whose Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed (left) committed an epic strategic blunder in the Horn of Africa to violate the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

Mogadishu (PP Editorial) — A week after Ethiopia defaulted on its debt repayments the Prime Minister of Ethiopia had signed with the President Somaliland administration a Memorandum of Understanding to have a 20 KM coastal land leased to Ethiopia, all in violation of the International Law, the Charter of the African Union and the territorial integrity of Somalia. The Somaliland President, Muse Bihi Abdi, said that the leasing of the coastal land will result in diplomatic recognition of Somaliland by Ethiopia.

Ethiopian strategists seem to be oblivious to the fact that diplomatic recognition granted to Somaliland in exchange for illegal leasing of a coastal district will not be unlike the recognition that Russia granted to Donetsk People’s Republic. Apart from Russia, Syria and North Korea recognise Donetsk as a sovereign country.

The irony lost on The Federal Republic of Ethiopia is that  at the United Nations the Federal Republic of Somalia supported Ukraine to denounce the Russian aggression whereas Ethiopia abstained. Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, reasons that he had gained a miraculous concession to have access to sea for fifty years, a feat he places above the   Renaissance Dam that affects the flow of the Nile River to Egypt. Abiy Ahmed has committed a political blunder like what Mengistu Haile Mariam did in 1982 when Ethiopian forces captured two districts in Somalia and claimed to have annexed them. The outcome of that disastrous adventure is Ethiopia becoming a landlocked country after Eritrea gained independence in 1993.

The decision by the Ethiopian government to violate the territorial integrity of Somalia undermines the stabilisation efforts and state-building endeavours to which the International Community commits resources to help Somalia to recover from state collapse and defeat extremists.

Abiy’s intention is to divert attention from his political wars inside Ethiopia since 2020 when the Tigray war erupted, followed by the war with his one-time ally, Fano, and Oromo Liberation Front. The blatant disregard for international norms is best demonstrated by the strategic myopia of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, who does not understand that Somalia’s territorial waters cannot be signed away or leased by any entity. Somalia honours its contractual obligations based on bona fide offshore drilling agreements. The coastal land that Somaliland claims to have leased to Ethiopia is a part of Somalia’s territorial waters under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government of Somalia. For this very reason, among many reasons, the Memorandum of Understanding that the Ethiopian Prime Minister signed with Muse Bhi Abdi, is null and void. 

© Puntland Post, 2024

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