Mogadishu (PP Comment) — The visit of the Egyptian Foreign Minister to Mogadishu last week marked the fortieth anniversary of the visit to Somalia by former President of Egypt Mohamed Husni Mubarak in 1984. At the Teatro Nazionale, President Mubarak watched a play in Arabic about the long-standing relations between Egypt and Somalia. A scene of the play featured the visit of Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut to the Land of Punt. The visit was depicted at Deir el-Bahari.
Generations of Somalis grew up reading Akher Saa, Al-Musawar, October, Rose Al Yusef and Al Ahram, among other Egyptian publications One of the most prominent pre-1991 secondary schools in Mogadishu was named after President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Egyptian teachers from Al Azhar and other Egyptian universities taught in the most sought-after primary and secondary schools in Somalia.
The launch of the twice-weekly Cairo-Mogadishu flight by EgyptAir last week and the planned opening of Banque Misr branches in Somalia indicate that post-1991 relations between the two countries have entered a new phase. Egypt is a true friend of Somalia that does not seek to take advantage of a country that has experienced a traumatic state collapse.
Somalia should unequivocally support the rights of Egypt to benefit from Nile River equitably. Such a decision will revoke the diplomatic support given to Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam by the previous Somali government (2017-2022). The position of Somalia on GERD understandably resulted in the expansionist policies of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in an attempt to annex a Somali coastal district by signing an illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding with a secessionist administration in northern Somalia.
The unbreakable bonds between Egypt and Somalia will ensure that the duplicity and destabilising stratagems of Abiy Ahmed will not undermine the sovereignty of both countries and their right to protect their interests in a mutually complementary manner.
© Puntland Post, 2024
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