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Thousands of Somaliland Soldiers reportedly in Ethiopia for military training
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    Saturday July 13, 2024

    Thousands of Somaliland soldiers have entered Ethiopia on Thursday, BBC Amharic reported it citing government news outlets in Somaliland.

    The soldiers have reportedly arrived in Ethiopia for a military training but it is unspecified how long the training will be.  The state television has reportedly shown video footage of the soldiers as they start traveling to Ethiopia.

    “Somaliland Defense Chief of Staff Major General Nuh Ismail sent off trainees [going to Ethiopia]” BBC Amharic quoted state owned Somaliland Television as saying.

    The Ethiopian government has not confirmed or denied, at this writing, as has been the case in the past few months.  Last month, the Office of The Prime Minister issued an advisory urging caution when consuming news content about the MoU with Somaliland.

    Ethiopia and Somaliland have reached a defense agreement just a week after the signing of the Memorandum of understanding in January 2024.

    Major General Nuh Ismail visited Ethiopia in January 2024 and held discussion with Defense Chief of Staff  Field Marshal Berhanu Jula. No details were released about their meeting other than the information that “military cooperation” was discussed, which borkena reported at the time.

    News of the arrival of Somaliland troops in Ethiopia came at a time when the president of Somalia wrapped up a two days working visit to Eritrea where he discussed strengthening cooperation. Eritrea has been training thousands of Somali soldiers. During his latest trip, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with his country’s defense members in Eritrea who are currently getting air force training.

    Relations between Ethiopia and Somalia severed after Ethiopia signed  a MoU agreement with Somaliland on January 1, 2024. Somalia claims that its sovereignty was violated when the MoU was signed, and had been on a campaign to garner political and military support against Ethiopia.

    Somaliland – which has been existing as a de facto state for well over three decades – rejected Somalia’s position including an order to close the Ethiopian consulate in Hargeisa.  

    Turkey has initiated a dialogue between the two countries despite Hassan Sheikh Mohamud vowing that there would be no room for dialogue before Ethiopia revokes the MoU it signed.  On July 1, Ethiopia’s  Minister for Foreign Affairs, Taye Aske Selassie, and his counterpart in Somalia, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, met in Ankara, and they are scheduled to meet again in September this year.

     





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