Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — The illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding signed on 1 January 2024 by the Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi and the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed threatens to upend the state-building initiative that the United Kingdom pioneered in Somalia almost 12 years ago to prepare Somalia for a permanent government. Although structural injustices that affect many Somalis due to the 4.5 power-sharing system exist, Somalia has made a headway in building a rudimentary federal system that enable politicians to address political challenges they had inherited from the post-1991 predominantly warlord dominated political landscape.
Britain invests in health, educational and security institutions in Somalia. The cumulative progress in Somalia, exemplified by the lifting of the arms embargo, debt relief and induction of Somalia into the East African Community, points to an improved understanding of the role of politicians and the need for political accountability.
The United Kingdom, the penholder of Somalia at the United Nations Security Council, was a European Union member state when it had begun to contribute to helping Somalia to ditch its failed state status. Since the UK left the EU its role in Somalia’s state-building journey has been indirectly challenged by France through the EU. While the United Kingdom expressed its position on the political and territorial integrity of Somalia, France expressed its position through a retweet of an EU tweet on the X platform (formerly Twitter). Italy tweeted its position on the territorial integrity of Somalia.
Earlier this week Mr. Thomas Gassilloud, Chairman of the French National Assembly Committee on National Defence and Armed Forces met with Dr Dima Nogo, the Chairman of the Peace and Foreign Affairs Standing Committee of the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives (HoPR). According to the Addis Standard, “Dima told the French Committee led by Thomas Gassilloud that the comprehensive cooperation and partnership agreement that Ethiopia signed with Somaliland guarantees mutual development, highlighting its economic and national security significance to landlocked Ethiopia”.
Gassilloud did not refer to the EU position on maritime Memorandum of Understanding when he had met with Dr Dima, a diplomatic slip that make France susceptible to the accusation that it is colliding with Ethiopia, a country that has violated the sovereignty of Somalia by signing an MoU with a secessionist administration in Northern Somalia. “France can no longer hide behind the EU position. Gassilloud should have known better” said a Somali MP in Mogadishu.
© Puntland Post, 2024
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