Ethiopia Should Retract the Maritime Memorandum of Understanding Against Somalia

[Deeq A.]

President Dr Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Dr Abiy Ahmed

Mogadishu (PP Editorial ) — The Prime Minister of Ethiopia has given the Federal Republic of Somalia a reason to view Ethiopia an expansionist country violating the cardinal principles of the African Union and the United Nations regarding the sovereignty of nations. How can Abiy Ahmed justify his motivations about signing a maritime Memorandum of Understanding with a secessionist Somali administration on 1//1/2024 when his government renewed a defence pact with Somalia on 7/12/2023? Abiy Ahmed cavalierly disregards the international norms to the point of being described by the United States as a regime whose actions give Al-shabaab a new lease of life.

Abiy Ahmed was not encroaching upon the sovereignty of Somalia before President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had been elected in 2022. Ethiopia had to abandon the 19% share it had bought in Berbera DP World Lease in 2017 because the agreement, like the naval base UAE wanted to establish in Berbera, was in violation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Abiy Ahmed chose to save his Horn of Africa Integration initiative instead of losing face in an agreement with a Somali sub-national entity.

In 2022 while visiting Eritrea President Hassan Shekh Mohamud reiterated his commitment to the Horn of Africa Economic Integration initiative. In 2020, writing an essay in Foreign Affairs, to argue against the initiative, President Mohamud wrote: “Efforts at political integration that come at the expense of sovereignty are bound to provoke conflict and end in failure”.

Ethiopia cannot afford to become a pariah state in the Horn Africa given the economic and demographic challenges it is facing. Respecting international norms is the only path to consolidating the goodwill Somalia has shown and confidence it has in responsible economic integration between societies sharing democratic values and dislike for totalitarianism and predatory elites. For this reason Ethiopian ought to retract the maritime Memorandum of Understanding to respect the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2024

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