A key minister of Federal Ethiopia, Ahmed Shide, accompanied by Gedu Andargechew, Foreign Affairs, arrived in Hargeisa, the Republic of Somaliland, Wednesday.
An Ethiopian delegation led by Foreign Affairs Minister Gedu Andargechew and Finance Minister Ahmed Shide are expected to meet Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi over a proposed historic visit by Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, sources say. pic.twitter.com/ebGezo6rrE
— Radio Dalsan (@DalsanFM) February 18, 2020
The visit comes a day after His Excellency, Musa Bihi Abdi, emphatically ruled out an Ethiopian-driven proposed visit of the Ethiopian Prime Minister with the Somalia Federal President in tow.
It is not yet clear whether the visit is a peace-making one in the wake of the professed visit which nearly brought down the Bihi government. Worse still, nobody was certain what would have happened if, PM Abi Ahmed, wished he brought Somalia’s Farmajo to Hargeisa. Public reaction was intense and unpredictable.
It is noteworthy that PM Ahmed did not for once paid a visit to a Somaliland with whose relations Ethiopia gains as opposed that costs him daily lives and untold of millions of birr as a default peacemaker, unlike other AMISOM partners.
Minister Shide is well respected in Somaliland.
Somaliland people have a great deal of admiration n respect for Hon. Ahmed Shide. Hope his visit will tighten n upgrade the relationship between the two countries.
— Ahmed Ibrahim (@ahm_ibrahima) February 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/Gobannimo/status/1230069961906958336?s=20
Notwithstanding the critical timing of the visit, the unrecognized republic of Somaliland and Ethiopia have, over the past 30 years, forged strong, mutually respected relations the likes of which few countries enjoy in Africa.
Ethiopian businesspeople trade at the border town of Wajale to the tune of millions of dollars. Estimates have put outgoing commodities to Ethiopian on sunny days at as much as $5 million US a day.
Somaliland imports fruits, vegetables, oil, cement, honey, ghee, and, above all, the mild narcotic catta adulis – locally known as Khat or Qat – at a steady, but staggering, UYS$199 million a year – at the most conservative of estimates.
Neither country has a desire to rock the cart.
My follow Somaliland we should stop the Khat from Ethiopia. Abiy Ahmed has no respect for Somaliland. We send him millions of dollars daily which is hard currency Ethiopia desperately needs. Not to mention hundreds of migrant workers and businesses who are safely trading in SL.
— Sucaad Odowa (@SucaadOdowa) February 19, 2020
The recent, seemingly ill-thought of whirling diplomacy of the Ethiopian PM in an unhealthy desire to force-effect a reunion between Somalia and a Somaliland still smarting under the traumatic effects of a war of attrition and calculated genocide in the hands of a Somalia government, however, put the two country’s relations under an unbearable strain.
Ahmed Shide Ethiopia's Finance Minister is PM Ahmed's right hand man.He should tell his boss to stop destabalizing Somaliland, the only Ethiopia friendly Somali entity,with his obsessive desire to bring Somalia's prez to Hargeisa. No SL govt can accept that & remain in power.
— Yusuf Gabobe (@yGabobe) February 19, 2020
President Bihi, in his yearly state address to the nation delivered at a joint session of the bicameral parliament, ruled out the happenstance of another fateful union with Somalia.
Ethiopia, if it adopts a more sedate, more responsible tack, can succeed in convincing Farmajo to roll back the offensive measures he had trained on Somaliland since he came to office 2017. These may include the honour of afore-reached agreements, the acknowledgement that Somaliland was not forced to enter a merger with Somalia in 1960, and as such, cannot be forced to keep it.
Given the current, unhealthy attachment binding PM Ahmed to Farmajo – for reasons that the PM can only shed light on, neither Ethiopia nor Somalia has the leadership to come up with a bold, logical conclusion as above which could be of lasting benefit to the whole region.
Somalia, on its part, takes full advantage of the Ethiopian PM’s relative naivety to make him pressure a Somaliland whose history he has to fully grasp yet.
Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide has reportedly arrived in Hargeisa to inform Bihi and co that their tribal protest has no support amongst the region and the IC.
The only way forward is united African sovereign states. We cannot have rebels, tribal enclaves beyond 2020.
— AfrikanNet (@afrikanNet) February 19, 2020
