Egypt’s president warns Cairo won’t allow any threat to Somalia amid dispute with Ethiopia

Cairo will stand shoulder to shoulder with Somalia and will not allow any threat to the Horn of Africa country, Egypt’s president has said, referring specifically to Ethiopia’s recent agreement with the breakaway Somaliland that would give it access to the sea and allow it to establish a marine force base.
“Egypt will not allow anyone to threaten Somalia or affect its security,” Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said on Sunday (21 January), speaking at a news conference with visiting Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Al-Sisi’s comments come amid dispute between Somalia and Ethiopia over the latter’s sea port deal with Somaliland. Strongly denouncing the agreement, Egypt’s president issued a thinly veiled warning addressed to Ethiopia: “Do not try Egypt, or try to threaten its brothers especially if they ask it to intervene.”
El-Sisi’s comments were the strongest yet made on the issue by Egypt, which came amid deteriorating relations with Ethiopia and were a sign that Cairo’s may potentially get involved in the dispute, raising fresh tensions in the volatile Horn of Africa. Somaliland, a region strategically located by the Gulf of Aden, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 amid escalating civil war, has since maintained its own government despite a lack of international recognition. In a memorandum of understanding signed on 1 January, Ethiopia said it would consider recognizing Somaliland’s independence in return for the port access. Somalia’s president denounced the deal as a violation of international law, warning that “we will not stand idly by and watch our sovereignty being compromised.”