President Mohamud “categorically opposes” Ethiopia's Red Sea port deal with Somaliland, territory Somalia claims as its own.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud accused Ethiopia of trying to annex part of his country's territory by signing a maritime access agreement with the breakaway region of Somaliland.
Speaking at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, on Saturday, Mohamud also said Ethiopian security forces attempted to block his access to the summit amid a dispute between the two countries.
The Ethiopia-Somaliland deal signed on January 1 “is nothing more than annexing part of Somalia to Ethiopia and changing the borders of Somalia,” Mohamud told reporters. “Somalia is categorically opposed to that.”
As part of the agreement, signed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi, Somaliland grants Ethiopia a 50-year lease on a naval base with access to Somaliland's Berbera port for commercial maritime operations.
Neither side has made public the terms of the deal, but it appears to give Ethiopia the right to build a port in Somaliland in exchange for its recognition.
Somaliland has enjoyed de facto independence for three decades, but Somalia considers the autonomous region and its four million people to be part of its northern territory.
Mogadishu views any international recognition of Somaliland as an attack on Somalia's sovereignty, and the Somali government has called the port deal with Addis Ababa “scandalous” and “unauthorized.”
“Ethiopia is deceiving the world by claiming it needs access to the sea,” Mohamud said on Saturday. “The issue is not access to the sea. The question is how Ethiopia wants to access the sea.”
He claimed that senior Ethiopian army officers were in Somaliland “preparing the ground” for the annexation of the territory. It was not possible to verify his accusation.
Somalia has suggested it would be willing to go to war to prevent Ethiopia from building a port in Somaliland. But Ethiopia's Abiy has downplayed fears of armed conflict over the Somaliland deal, telling lawmakers earlier this month that he had “no intention” of going to war with Somalia.
'Provocation'
Reporting from Addis Ababa on Saturday, Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall noted that Somalia's president had been very frank in his comments at the AU Summit.
“[Mohamud] accused Ethiopia of not just seeking access to the sea in the normal way, because Ethiopia has many other neighbors that have access to the sea, that have coastlines… The real purpose, he said, of the [deal] is to annex Somaliland, which is part of the sovereign republic of Somalia,” Vall said.
“The Somali president condemned the behavior of the Ethiopian government and said that they even tried to block his access to the venue of today's summit,” our correspondent added. “He wondered how this can happen in a country that hosts the AU, an organization based on equality among African states and the freedom of leaders who come here to access the summit.”
Mohamud, who was attending the 37th AU summit, claimed that Ethiopian security services tried to prevent him from leaving his hotel in Addis Ababa on Saturday morning, forcing him to travel in the Djibouti president's convoy.
When the two arrived at the AU headquarters, armed guards tried to prevent them from entering the building, Mohamud said, describing the alleged action as “provocation.”
However, Ethiopia said it had “warmly welcomed” Mohamud and accorded him all the honors of visiting heads of state and government at the summit.
Prime Minister Abiy's spokesman Billene Seyoum told the AFP news agency that the Somali delegation was blocked when its security team tried to enter a location with weapons.
“The security of the Somali delegation tried to enter the AUC premises with weapons, but was blocked by the AUC security,” he said.
As African leaders gather in Ethiopia for the AU summit, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also attended the two-day meeting and raised the issue of Israel's war in Gaza with AU leaders who remain divided over his support for Palestine.
