By The Star Staff Writer
MOGADISHU – The northwestern Somali region, which for decades called itself an independent “republic”, suffered a major diplomatic setback on Wednesday after its staunchest supporter, Ethiopia, referred to it as administration, a word that’s been used to describe regions that are still a part of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received at his office today the President of the Somaliland Administration H.E. Muse Bihi Abdi and his delegation,” said a statement on the Ethiopian premier’s official Facebook page on Wednesday.
One of several photos posted on the same page showed dour-faced Bihi and somewhat uncomfortable and shy-looking Abiy coldly shaking hands.
As if on cue, the Somali government issued a statement welcoming Ethiopia’s initiative to mediate between Mogadishu and the northwestern region, whose agitation to secede from the rest of Somalia started in 1991.
The Federal Government of Somalia “lauds the move by President Musa Bihi of Somaliland Administration to engage in close cooperation with the Federal Government,” said the office of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo in an English-language Twitter message. “The FGS considers this move a progressive step in the right direction and applauds President Bihi ‘s commitment in this regard.”
Addis Ababa’s new policy change seems to be a part of a broader attempt by its reformist, young prime minister to dismantle previous administrations’ destructive policies that cosseted statelets in Somalia with military and diplomatic support. Soon after he came to power in April last year, Prime Minister Abiy, began to breathe a new life into the once-sour relationship with Somalia’s national government. The change hurt Hargeisa, which for decades enjoyed cordial ties with Addis Ababa.
Although Ethiopia supported the case of the northwestern region since the 1980s, when a rebel group waged guerrilla warfare against the then Somali government, it didn’t, at any time, officially recognize the Hargeisa-based administration as an independent state. Addis Ababa, however, has an Ambassador in the region and its national carrier regularly flies to Hargeisa, a privilege Somalia’s national capital, Mogadishu, got only on Nov. 9 last year.
According to a U.S. diplomatic cable revealed by the Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing organisation, Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had “urged” Hargeisa’s former ruler, Dahir Riyale Kahin, to write a letter to the Africa Union requesting that it “identify a timeframe for a discussion on the Somaliland issue.”
However, Riyale “messed things up” by “essentially re-sending his previous letter requesting recognition and membership in the AU, rather than asking for a timeframe for a discussion on Somaliland,” said Meles in the 2008 diplomatic dispatch, adding that “if Somaliland had taken the route that he suggested, it would have been likely that the issue could have been addressed soon.”
Somalia’s successive, post-war national governments have always insisted that the northwestern region was a part of the Somali republic, although they admitted that the last central government had committed egregious human rights abuses against inhabitants of the now self-administering territory.
Since 2017, when he came to power, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo has been pressuring Addis Ababa to cut its special ties with Somali regional administrations that are not in good terms with his Mogadishu-based government.
Under the auspices of Turkey, officials from Mogadishu and Hargeisa met in Ankara several times to try to iron out their differences, but in vain, as Mogadishu’s unwillingness to let Hargeisa go and Hargeisa’s insistence on being an independent, if internationally unrecognized, state, doomed the talks.
The Ethiopian statement said Bihi’s administration had accepted Addis Ababa’s offer to reopen the talks between the Somalis.
Bihi had “accepted the Prime Minister’s call to further strengthen the close working relationship between Somaliland Administration and Federal Government of Somalia,” including “one-to-one and bilateral discussions in the future,” said the statement.
Mogadishu also welcomed Abiy’s bid.
“The Federal Government of Somalia is ready to take the talks that are strengthening the cooperation further to create a good environment and development,” said Farmajo’s office in a Somali-language Twitter message.
Bihi and Abiy agreed on boosting “people to people relations” and on “ensuring the wellbeing of Ethiopians in Somaliland and working in unison on matters of peace and security,” said the Ethiopian statement.
During their discussions, it said, the two parties touched on their economic ties and how landlocked Ethiopia can better utilize the port of Berbera, through which it already uses to import goods.
“We discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral relationship and trade collaboration of the two countries,” said Bihi in a Twitter message apparently aimed at his people.