Mereja.Forum

[eritrea]

Somaliland lawmakers shoot down Red Sea access deal with Ethiopia

Lawmakers in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland have rejected a maritime access deal with Ethiopia.

In a joint statement late on Tuesday, members of both houses of Somaliland's parliament, mainly from the coastal Awdal and Salal provinces, said the Red Sea access deal was "illegal" and aims to "harm the unity of the people of Somaliland."

"We have rejected the deal and its implementation and we are calling the government to stop and retract the memorandum of understanding," said the statement.

The statement pointed to "conflicting statements" from leaders of Somaliland and Ethiopia on the deal, which allows Ethiopia to obtain a permanent naval base and commercial maritime service in the Gulf of Aden.

Somalia has rejected Ethiopia's Red Sea port deal with Somaliland in January, calling it "illegitimate," a threat to good neighborliness and a violation of its sovereignty.

#Somaliland #Ethiopia

@africaintel

[Jikaar]

That's exaggerated , yes the awdal communities are concerned some are even confused because of the Somalia propaganda. But the Isaaq community who are the majority of somaliland are in support of the MoU .

unlike other countries in the horn somaliland is a democratic nation with freedom of speech all our peaple have the rights to express themselves freely. Even if a village says says we don't want this or that. Their decision will be respected. The government will move the project to the next village. We don't force any one. We have 82 elected representatives of the peaple. And 82 selected representatives of all our clans. The entire awdal region have 13 MPs . Considering the fact that Ethiopia is broke nation at the moment who can't build any thing . Berbera is actually the only place with well developed facilities in our country. Somalia government are deliberately spreading propaganda in awdal. Simply because they are non isaaq. Minorities are always suspicious.

[Jikaar]

Somalia is spreading propaganda in awdal region because of religious and historical reasons. 500 years ago we fought in this region against Ethiopia and Portugal. Djibouti itself doesn't want any Portal development in this region. It's complicated issue .