Somalia has expelled the Ethiopian ambassador from the country and ordered the closure of two consulates.
It accused Ethiopia of infringing on Somalia’s “sovereignty and internal affairs”.
Somalia also recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, for “comprehensive consultations”
Ethiopia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nebiyu Tedla told Reuters news agency the government did not have information on the matter.
Somalia closed two of the Ethiopian consulates in the country’s northern region and ordered the Ethiopian ambassador to leave the country, escalating diplomatic rifts between the two sides.
The Cabinet which met in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, said the two consulates in Garowe in Puntland State and Hargeisa in Somaliland State must be closed within a week.
“Diplomats and employees of the Ethiopian government working in the two consulates in the cities mentioned must leave the country within a week,” the Cabinet said in a statement issued after the meeting.
The statement warned of further consequences for any Ethiopian diplomats who fail to comply with the directive, emphasizing that such actions would be seen as a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty. It also instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to officially inform the Ethiopian ambassador to Somalia to return to his country for consultation.
This development follows a meeting between the Ethiopian foreign minister and Puntland’s finance minister Wednesday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, which Mogadishu claims was not coordinated with or approved by the Somali government.
Tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia have been exacerbated by a recent agreement between Ethiopia and the Somaliland State of Somalia. The agreement, signed on Jan. 1, grants landlocked Ethiopia access rights to the Red Sea port of Berbera, a move that Somalia views as a violation of its territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ethiopia will be able to establish commercial marine operations at the port and will have access to a leased military base on the Red Sea. In exchange, Ethiopia has agreed to recognize Somaliland as an independent nation, which has not been internationally recognized, and provide a share of state-owned Ethiopian Airlines to Somaliland.
The expulsion highlights an escalation in diplomatic tensions in the region following land-locked Ethiopia’s port deal with the self-declared republic of Somaliland earlier this year.
Its independence has not been internationally recognised and Somalia condemned the deal as an attack on its sovereignty.
In January, Ethiopia signed a deal with Somaliland to lease a 20km (12 miles) strip of coastline, so it could build a navy base.
The deal is not legally binding, though it is seen as a statement of intent and can lead to a treaty imposing obligations on those parties who have signed.
In exchange, Ethiopia reportedly told Somaliland it would offer it possible recognition in the future – which angered Somalia.
Somaliland seceded from Somalia more than 30 years ago, but is not recognised by the African Union (AU) or the UN as an independent state.
Following this deal, Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud launched a diplomatic campaign and travelled to Eritrea and Egypt- two countries with fraught relations with Ethiopia.
Somalia demanded a public reversal of the deal by Ethiopia but this has not happened.
Somalia has described the deal as an act of aggression, adding that it was an “impediment to… peace and stability”.
Earlier this week Ethiopian delegates met officials from the semi-autonomous Somali province of Puntland, which has difficult relations with the central government.
This year Puntland said it would operate as a functionally independent state amid a dispute over Somali constitutional changes.
The two Ethiopian consulates that Somalia has ordered to close are in Hargeisa and Garowe, the capitals of Somaliland and Puntland, respectively.
The prospect of armed clashes between the two countries seems unlikely at this point. Ethiopia is one of the countries contributing soldiers to an AU peacekeeping mission in Somalia, which complicates the situation.
There are already concerns that the Islamist group al-Shabab might be using tensions between the two countries to recruit fighters and increase security threats.
Escalations in the row between Somalia and Ethiopia could only worsen that.
