Ethiopia Rattled as Egypt Delivers Military Aid to Somalia

Wednesday August 28 2024

By FRED OLUOCH

By MELVIN OMONDI

Ethiopia on Wednesday responded angrily to Egypt’s delivery of arms to Somalia, likely signalling escalated tensions between the two Horn of Africa neighbours.

Addis Ababa warned that Somalia's dalliance with 'external forces' was likely to destabilise the region, arguing the changeover is “fraught with danger.”

The statement from Addis Ababa did not mention Egypt directly, but did say the transition in Somalia from the African Union Mission in Somalia (Atmis) to the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (Aussom) was being conducted without regard to the region's security interests.

“All those responsible for preparing and authorising a new support mission must take into account the legitimate concerns of countries of the region and the TCCs (troop contributing countries), Forces trying to inflame tension for their short-term objectives must shoulder the grave ramifications,” Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.

“Ethiopia cannot tolerate these actions that endanger the gains made against regional and international terrorist groups."

Ethiopia has been a troop contributor to Atmis but Somalia has made it clear it won't be a part of Aussom after the two countries differed on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Addis Ababa signed with Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland.

Mogadishu protested bitterly although the two sides recently met twice in Turkey for talks. They failed to resolve the issue.

Egypt, which already has a dispute over a dam over the Nile with Ethiopia, has already agreed to deploy 10,000 Egyptian troops—5,000 for the planned Aussom and 5,000 to be based Hiiraan region bordering Ethiopia. Ethiopia and Egypt failed to agree on how to fill the dam, which Cairo argued would affect its water resources downstream.

Egypt had at one time threatened to bomb the dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), which it argues is a national security threat.

Tension between Somalia and Ethiopia has been ongoing since January when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland’s leader Muse Bihi Abdi, signed an MoU that granted Ethiopia a 50-year lease on a naval base with access to Somaliland’s Berbera port for commercial marine operations.

Somalia had made it clear that Ethiopia would not be part of Aussom, which is supposed to take over from Atmis in January 2025.

On August 23, Somalia Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre in an address to the press in Mogadishu confirmed that Ethiopian forces would not be part of Aussom unless Addis Ababa withdraws from a controversial MoU with the self-governing Somaliland, which Somalia considers as an integral part of its territory.

Ethiopia has refused to withdraw the MoU since as a landlocked country, the deal with Somaliland would give it the long-desired access to the sea after Eritrea broke away in 1993 and took the ports of Asseb and Massawa with them.

Should Egypt deploy 10,000 troops, Somalia may become part of the geopolitical tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt, given that Cairo had on several occasions threatened military action over Gerd built on the Blue Nile, which supplies 80 percent of water to Egypt.