How History Informs Somalia’s Diplomatic Strategy

[Deeq A.]

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used the rights of the sovereign Somalia to lawfully and successfully challenge the illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding that Ethiopia signed with a secessionist entity in northern Somalia.

Mogadishu (Commentary ) — The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Dr Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, recently commended the importance of learning social sciences at the tertiary level. His high-minded advocacy for a subject with which few Somalis associate any clear career pathway, especially those rewarded by the labour market, sheds light on what the President has been reading about the Horn of Africa.

President Mohamud has surely read several history books on the Horn of Africa, particularly the modern history of Ethiopia. Alliances the President forged in 2024 remind many of the path taken by Emperor Haile Selassie in the early 1940s, when Ethiopia, liberated from fascism, was briefly labelled by Britain as the “Occupied Enemy Territory Administration.” 

“In [February] 1945, the emperor met President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Egypt and discussed issues of vital concern to Ethiopia at the time — Eritrea, the Ogaden and the railway. The granting of a concession to the American Sinclair Company to prospect for oil in the Ogaden was designed as much to reassert Ethiopia’s rights in the region as out of eagerness to exploit a lucrative natural resource,” writes Bahru Zewde in A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855-1991.

In 1945 Emperor Haile Selassie granted “a concession to the American Sinclair Company to prospect for oil in the Ogaden … to reassert Ethiopia’s rights in the region…”

Ethiopia is an early beneficiary of the Westphalian system, both in its pre-UN days under the League of Nations and after the United Nations was founded in October 1945.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used the rights of the sovereign Somalia to lawfully and successfully challenge the illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding that Ethiopia signed with the Somaliland administration, a secessionist entity in northern Somalia. The granting of oil prospecting concessions to Türkiye and other companies, and the invocation of pre-1991 agreements with American firms, all help Somalia reassert its sovereignty at a time when the rules-based global system appears somewhat jittery.

Türkiye has not only helped Somalia rebuild its armed forces, it also maintains a base in Somalia, and supplied the Ethiopian army with drones that were used to repel the TPLF during the civil war in northern Ethiopia (2020-2022). In 2024, Türkiye facilitated an agreement between Ethiopia and Somalia, an agreement that commits Ethiopia to fully respect the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

Ethiopia is a landlocked country. Its objections to respecting Somalia’s sovereignty have a long history, including its army’s invasion of the Somali districts of Galdogob and Balanballe in 1982. At that time, Ethiopia was allied with the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, while Somalia was in the NATO sphere of influence. Ethiopia even defied the African Union Charter article on the sovereignty of member states, evidence that the communist bloc opposed African agency in resolving inter-country conflicts and adhering to rules agreed upon by member nations.

History is a social sciences subject. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s diplomatic lawfare to protect the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia underscores the truth of the well-known dictum: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” attributed to Mark Twain.

Adan M. S. Hussein teaches history at a university in Mogadishu

© Puntland Post, 2025

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