Somaliland president in South Africa for medical check-up

The president of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, has gone to South Africa for a "working tour and medical check-up", official radio Hargeysa reported.

It said he left the Somaliland capital, Hargeysa, on Wednesday for a 10-day visit. "Since Arab countries have a low estimation of us, the Somaliland president refused to go there," a statement by the president's spokesman said, referring to the check-up. "Consequently, the president requested the South African government, which has a diplomatic representative in the republic of Somaliland, to accept him, which it did."

After his treatment, Egal would follow up on political issues, his spokesman Abdi Idris Du'ale added.

Diplomatic sources told IRIN this was Egal's second trip abroad in three months. In February, he visited Ethiopia. He is accompanied by his wife, Foreign Minister Muhammad Sa'id Ges, Information Minister Abdullahi Muhammad Du'ale, and the governor of Somaliland's central bank, Abdirahman Du'ale. The president was reportedly taken from Berbera on a chartered plane to South Africa, where he checked immediately into a hospital.

According to the sources, Egal has been trying to go for a medical check-up for at least two years, but was unable to do so because of the political situation in Somaliland.

Egal, who is known to have contacts with the South African authorities, will use his trip to brief South African officials on the current situation in Somalia.