On Monday August 12, 2024, Ankara hosted a meeting between the Turkish Foreign Ministers; Hakan Fidan, Somalia; Ahmed Moallem Faki, Ethiopia; Tai Atseki Selassie, in a second round of negotiations mediated by Turkey to end disputes between the two neighboring Horn of Africa countries, Somalia and Ethiopia.
On Tuesday August 13, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Spokesman for the Government of Djibouti, said in an exclusive interview with Asharq Al-Awsat: “In all honesty, the positions of the two countries on the concept of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity are very far apart,” adding that “the solution lies in one of the two countries abandoning its position on these issues.
Djibouti’s Foreign Minister, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, ruled out the success of Turkish mediation in resolving the crisis between the states of Somalia and Ethiopia, over the latter’s lease of a naval base on the Red Sea in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which the government in Mogadishu rejects and considers “a violation of its sovereignty”.
Sources close to Djibouti’s Minister of National Education and Vocational Training, Mr. Moustapha Mohamed Mohamoud, the Djibouti Embassy in Addis Ababa and the Secretary General of the Prime Minister’s Office in Djibouti have hinted that the miracle solution proposed by Ismaël Omar Guelleh’s government is a referendum on self-determination in Somaliland in exchange for the cancellation of the Maritime Memorandum of Understanding signed on January 1, 2024 between Addis Ababa and Hargeisa.
According to these sources, Djibouti’s aforementioned miracle proposal will be made under the auspices of IGAD, currently chaired by Ismael Omar Guelleh.
Djibouti intends to organize talks in Nairobi between the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mahmud, and the President of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, so that Hargeisa will officially renounce the maritime Memorandum of Understanding signed with Ethiopia on January 1, 2024, and in exchange Mogadishu will accept the holding of a referendum on self-determination in Somaliland.
This miracle proposal from the Djiboutian government is a double-edged sword for Muse Bihi Abdi:
– If he agrees to renounce the maritime Memorandum of Understanding signed with Ethiopia, Muse Bihi Abdi will be on Addis Ababa’s back;
– If he refuses the proposal for a referendum on self-determination, Muse Bihi Abdi will be considered as a man opposed to the independence or secession of Somaliland.
