Hargeisa, Somalia — The Minister of Defense of Somaliland, Abdiqani Mohamud Aateeye, has announced that he has resigned from the ministerial position after opposing the agreement between Somaliland and Ethiopia.
The minister who gave a private interview to Horyaal TV said, “I am resigned to the fact that the president is giving 20 kilometers of our sea to Ethiopia and I am against it in my opinion, since we have lost land in Ethiopia before, and the number one enemy of Somalia is Ethiopia. He knows both the small and the great.”
He said that they met the president today, and he told him that he did not believe that it is appropriate for Ethiopian troops to come to Somaliland.
He said that the land of Lughaya where the Ethiopian base is to be built belongs to his community as an area, and he is thinking about the peace of Ethiopia in Somaliland, and the president rejected that.
The minister also doubted the rent of the sea saying that Abiy Ahmed wants to take a sea but he does not want to rent a sea and own it, as he noted.
The agreement has sparked protests in Somaliland, some supporting it and some opposing it, with some people supporting it and some people expressing doubts.
On the other hand, the Somali government strongly rejected the agreement between the two parties, calling it a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty.