The chairman of the technical committee for the task of the implementation of the MoU between Somaliland and Ethiopia, Bashe Awil Haji Omar, has said that his team has completed the first phase of the formulation of the agreement.
Bashe said that their work is entering a second legal phase of the agreement.
Speaking to the media, Bashe said that they have so far collated the pre-requisite body of information needed for the process of formulating a legal framework while engaging widely with all social structures of the populaces.
He likewise revealed that Somaliland has hired an international English legal firm, which will support Somaliland in the entailing process of the agreement in preparation for the final binding agreement.
He said. “The work of the technical committee on the Somaliland-Ethiopian agreement, the first phase has now been completed, which was to collect the information and the different views of the community, what we have collected and prepared, will be converted into action by preparation of the final document of the MoU”.
He continued, “This agreement will be prepared professionally with a British legal firm that we have retained”.
If they complete this agreement, it will make Addis Ababa recognize it as a fully independent country despite Somalia’s opposition to it. This is coming at the same time that Somaliland is preparing to celebrate the anniversary of its independence on May 18, 1991, although the international community has not yet recognized the region as a not a completely free country.
Once Addis Ababa recognizes it as a fully independent country, Somaliland will give Ethiopia the right to use its waters for 20 kilometers for 50 years and give Ethiopia the right to establish its military base on its shores. Somaliland , as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations of Somaliland, Essa Kayd, confirmed. However, even now, when the people of Somaliland feel that they are getting closer to what they have been dreaming of for a long time, their dreams are facing severe criticism from Somalia.
Somalia has never recognized Somaliland’s declared independence, and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud canceled the agreement they reached after five days, accusing Ethiopia of trying to control a part of his country, Somalia. The president of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, signed the memorandum of understanding in the first step of reaching this agreement, together with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed. Although the full content of the agreement they signed in January this year was not disclosed, the Ethiopian authorities said it would allow their country to establish a commercial base at the Somaliland port of Berbera.
Somaliland gained its independence from British colonialism on June 26, 1960, but the independence was only for five days. On the first day of July 1960, the Somaliland area was united with Somalia, that is Somali la Italiana, and Italy had colonized it in the past and established the Republic of Somalia with the aim of uniting the heads of the Somali speaking people who were distributed by the European colonialists. among them.
Additional reporting by Eshete Bekele of dw.com
