The Acting Somali Foreign Minister Distances Himself From Defence Pact With Ethiopia

**Ali Omar, the Acting Somali Foreign Minister, claimed the Foreign Ministry did not read the contents of the defence pact.**

Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — The Acting Somali Foreign Ministry Mr Ali Omar Ali yesterday distanced the Foreign Ministry of Somalia from any knowledge of the Defence Pact signed with Ethiopia on 7/12/2023. Answering a question posed by Senator Maryan Farah Kahiye about the defence pact, Ali Omar said: “The Foreign Ministry was aware of the pact but did not read its contents. We have neither the capacity nor the knowledge to discuss many agreements,” said Ali Omar.

Senator Maryan asked the Acting Foreign Minister why article about maritime security cooperation had been incorporated into defence pact signed three weeks before the illegal Memorandum of Understanding to lease 20 KM coastal district to Ethiopia was signed by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed and Muse Bihi Abdi, the President of the secessionist Somaliland Administration Muse Bihi Abdi.

**The Defence Minister of Somalia Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, who signed a defence pact with his Ethiopian counterpart Abraham Belay in December 2023, may be hung out to dry.**

The defence pact signed in Addis Ababa in December 2023 was a renewal of a defence agreement signed during President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s first term of office (2012-2017). Last week the Somaliland Interior Minister Mohamed Kahin implied that the illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding reflected the letter and the spirit of the agreements signed by the Federal Government of Somalia with Ethiopia.

**In 2022 Mahad Salad, the Director of NISA signed an intelligence sharing agreement with his Ethiopian counterpart Temesgen Dinku.**

“There is a plot to sacrifice the Somalia Defence Minister as a scapegoat although the renewal of the defence agreement had been hammered in Villa Somalia. The necessary step that the bicameral legislature ought to take is to repeal the defence pact with Ethiopia, and the intelligence sharing pact that NISA Director Mahad Salad signed in 2022 with his Ethiopian counterpart Temesgen Dinku, and to critically examine the security pact with the United Arab Emirates, a country that has allegedly egged on Muse Bihi to attempt to illegally lease a Somali coastal district to Ethiopia” said a federal MP who spoke to Puntland Post anonymously.

**Senator Maryan Kahiye asked the Acting Foreign Minister Ali Omar why an article about maritime security cooperation had been incorporated into defence pact signed with Ethiopia, a landlocked country.**

The Federal Government of Somalia has been accused of recklessly renewing a defence pact while keeping the details of the agreement secret. “The Federal Government of Somalia must take responsibility for what many people see as a green light for Ethiopia to falsely claim to have legal grounds to set up a naval base in the territory of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

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