Questions Remain Unanswered on the Somalia-Ethiopia Defence Pact

[Deeq A.]

Mogadishu (PP Special Report) — In the current geopolitical maelstrom triggered by the signing of the maritime Memorandum of Understanding between Ethiopia and the secessionist Somali administration known as the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland, observers ask a burning question: Why did the Federal Government of Somalia renew the defence agreement with Ethiopia that Addis Ababa now uses a pretext for seeking to illegally acquire a naval base in Northern Somalia?             

During his first term of office President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud led the first non-transitional, post-1991 Somali government.  His government signed a bilateral defence agreement with Ethiopia to deploy Ethiopian troops to Somalia without being mandated by ATMIS ( then known as AMISOM).  Ali Omar, the current Acting Foreign Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia was the Chief of Staff at Villa Somalia.  In 2013 he  held undisclosed meetings with officials from the Ethiopian government to pave the way for the signing of the agreement that culminated in President Hassan Sheikh Mohamed’s visit to Mekelle to participate in the celebrations of the TPLF’s  fortieth anniversary.   

Like the current federal bicameral legislature, the first post-transition parliament of Somalia (2012-2017) was controlled by the executive branch —  Villa Somalia.   Ali Omar was the official in charge of originating core government policies and bilateral agreements. Federal MPs closer to President Mohamud and  those critical of his policies feared the possibility of lethal reprisal at a time the number of MPs assassinated by Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu was upwards of 14. The incumbent Federal MPs turned a blind to the defence pact with Ethiopia signed ten years ago.  

The incumbent Federal MPs and Senators showed unnecessary pliancy in December 2023 when the Somali Defence Minister signed the renewal of the bilateral defence agreement in Addis Ababa, almost four weeks before Ethiopia signed a maritime Memorandum of Understanding in violation of Somalia’s sovereignty.  Redeployment of Ethiopian troops accused of committing massacres in Somalia between 2007

Ali Omar, the Acting Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia

and 2009 was not a policy that faced condemnation similar to objection to the Ethiopian claim that it was defending the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia when Meles Zenawi sent Ethiopian troops to fight the forces of the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia. Paradoxical peace overtures to Ethiopia.                   

Before the election of President Mohamed Abdulahi Farmajo in 2017 Ali Omar was selected as a Federal MP, a position he still holds after his  re-selection in 2022.  President Mohamud appointed him as State Minister of the Foreign Ministry, a very tactical move for which Damuljadiid clique is known  to micromanage Ministers who do not belong to the clique. Damuljadiid is a splinter group of Al Islah movement in Somalia. The Ethiopian intervention in Somalia had split Al Islah into two groups: a group that sought peaceful accommodation with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia as a basis for the ending the conflict and to pave the way for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops. Damuljadiid supported continued resistance against Ethiopian forces by a motley of fighters then known as Muqaawimah.     

Ali Omar devised the policy to allow for the deployment of Ethiopian troops in Somalia under a separate arrangement. This arrangement gave Villa Somalia an opportunity to treat Ethiopian troops almost as an extension of Somali forces. Unlike ATMIS forces operating under clearly defined defensive and peacemaking modalities, President Mohamud utilised Ethiopian troops for political reasons, an unremarkable feat emulated by his successor who used Ethiopian troops to detain Mukhtar Robow who  publicised his candidacy for South West State of Somali in 2018.          

The Ethiopian government claimed that the Federal Government of Somalia had been aware of the maritime Memorandum of Understanding. Given the maritime security cooperation clause in the renewed defence pact, the Federal Government of Somalia  resorted to the  vacuous  response that Ali Omar gave to Senator Maryan Farah Kahiye, who asked the Acting Foreign Minister what he “knew of the defence pact”. Ali Omar claimed that the Foreign Ministry was not aware of the contents of the defence pact and that Foreign Ministry “has neither the capacity nor the knowledge to discuss many agreements.” It is becoming all too clear that a bicameral legislature controlled by Villa Somalia plays the role of an enabler when MPs and Senators decline to repeal agreements the damage the national interest of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2024.

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