March 28, 2024

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Somalia summons Kenyan ambassador as diplomatic row escalates

Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has summoned the Kenyan ambassador to the country, Lucas Tumbo, and handed him a protest note over an offensive tweet by a Kenyan official, in an escalation of the diplomatic row between the two East African countries.

On 27 June 2019, the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of foreign affairs of Kenya, Macharia Kamau, tweeted this on his official Twitter handle: “@ForeignOfficeKE PS @AmbMKamau this afternoon held talks with Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Yasin Hagi Mohamed. The two discussed issues of mutual interest between the two countries and ways of strengthening cooperation”.

In a strong-worded statement, the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Government of Somalia said it considers the tweet that referred to Somaliland as a country an affront to Somalia’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity as well as harmful to the relationship between Somalia and Kenya.

It added that the Somali government stands for good neighbourliness , mutual respect and close cooperation with its neighbours and expects the same from the Kenya government.

Over the last few years, Somalia and Kenya Kenya and Somalia have been involved in a diplomatic row over a maritime border dispute. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will start hearing the case in September this year.

Nairobi wants the disputed to be resolved out of the court between the two countries. However, Mogadishu insists that the ICJ should rule on the dispute

Kenya has recently forged closer relations with the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, which broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but is yet to be recognised by any country in the world, and opened a consulate in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, in a bid to put pressure on Somalia to discuss the maritime border row out of court.

Source: SOMALI AFFAIRS

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