Kenyan Ambassador to Somalia Lucas Tumbo. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NMG
Differences between Kenya and Somalia have escalated as
Mogadishu wrote a protest letter to Nairobi for hosting officials of the
breakaway Somaliland.
Somalia’s Foreign Affair’s
ministry summoned Kenya’s Ambassador to Somalia Lucas Tumbo and handed
him the undisclosed protest notice.
The protest was
triggered by a June 27 tweet from Foreign Affairs PS Macharia Kamau,
about a meeting with his Somaliland counterpart. Somaliland broke away
from Somalia in 1991 after that country descended into civil war
following the collapse of Dictator Siad Barre’s regime.
Though
not internationally recognised, Somaliland has a working political
system, government institutions, a police force and its own currency.
“We
consider this tweet an affront to Somali sovereignty, unity and
territorial integrity as well as harmful to the relationship between
Somalia and Kenya,” Somalia said in a statement yesterday.
In the tweet, Mr Kamau spoke about a meeting he had with
Somaliland Foreign Affairs minister Yasin Hagi Mohamed, describing it as
successful.
Somaliland has escaped much of the chaos and violence that plague Somalia.
Somaliland
was a British protectorate until 1960, while Somalia was under Italian
colonial rule. Both then formed a united Somali republic after
independence. But while Somaliland’s leaders think that history gives
them every right to go it alone again, the African Union supports a
united Somalia.
A meeting between Kenya and Somaliland top officials came amid a maritime border row between Nairobi and Mogadishu.
The
International Court of Justice in The Hague is considering a claim on
their maritime border brought by Somalia in 2014 after talks the
100,000-square kilometre stretch of the sea broke down.
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