Minister Awad says, ‘Somalia-Somaliland talks set for next week in Djibouti.’

Photo/Somali Times




Talks between Somalia and the break-away region of Somaliland are set to resume next week as President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and President Muse Bihi are expected to meet in Djibouti. Foreign Minister Ahmed Isse Awad told Somali Times Via: Whatsapp Somalia two leaders will meet next week under the aegis of the US ambassador in Somalia Donald Yamamoto.

The talks, which failed to commence in 2016 then brokered by Turkey will also be attended be attended by senior officials from both sides. Somaliland has said the region’s foreign affairs minister Yasin Haji Mohamed and speaker of the Lower House Saleban Mohamoud Adan will be attending the talks.

Relations between Mogadishu and Hargeisa have remained frosty since Farmaajo came to office in 2017. President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo opposition of the Berbera Naval Base construction and subsequent declaration of expulsion of the UAE’s DP World which secured a $440 million deal to expand the port of Berbera frustrated hopes of any talks between the two.

President Muse Bihi has maintained the two contracts were signed by Somaliland as ‘an independent state’ and conditioned any talks to recognition of that status by Mogadishu.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo is facing an election early 2021 and before that Parliamentary election in October both of which Somaliland participates through clan representation. The two leaders met briefly this February at the sidelines of the AU meeting facilitated by Ethiopia’s Abiy Ahmed.