Prime Minister condemns Ethiopia

Interim Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galaydh said in a letter to the UN Security Council that Ethiopia was interfering in the internal affairs of Somalia, with the aim of preventing the re-emergence of a unified and peaceful Somalia. In the letter, dated 21 March, Galaydh said Ethiopia posed “a clear and present danger to our unity, territorial integrity and political independence”. He pointed to Ethiopia’s current hosting of Somali opposition groups, and the “occupation” of southern Somali towns in Gedo, Bay and Bakol regions. Ethiopia had “justified ominously, on the one hand, the illegal occupation of Somali territory on the imperatives of its own national security needs and, on the other hand, blamed Somalia... for publicising the presence of troops deep inside Somali territory”. He also accused Ethiopia of recruiting and arming militia in southern Somali regions.

Galaydh also complained that the Ethiopian government was accepting passports issued by the administration in the self-declared state of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, and had agreed to allow an Ethiopian bank to operate there. Despite pursuing a policy of constructive dialogue with opposition groups, the TNG was being deliberately undermined, Galaydh insisted. “The level of political violence is almost non-existent in Mogadishu now, but... we are bracing up for destabilisation activities engineered by our neighbours.”

The Ethiopian government has strenuously denied accusations that it has troops inside Somali territory, or that it has interfered in the internal affairs of Somalia.