Somalia has threatened to withdraw from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), after the regional organisation nullified its complaint against Kenya, with whom Somalia suspended diplomatic ties last month. In December, Somalia called on the organisation to launch an investigation into its claims that Kenya was “arming and training militia” along their shared border to attack the Somali National Army.
However, the IGAD team, led by Djiboutian Ambassador to Kenya Yacin Elmi Bouh and Djiboutian Ambassador to Somalia Aden Hassan Aden, concluded that there was no evidence to verify Somalia’s claims and called on both sides to engage in diplomatic negotiations to resolve their differences.
Likewise, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said, “I’m following the tensions on the Kenya-Somalia border with concern, and urge the two neighbours to exercise restraint and engage in dialogue in conformity with the Igad-led process.” He thus called on Somalia to adhere to the IGAD’s recommendations for dialogue, but this is now unlikely, given that it has now threatened to withdraw from the grouping.
In fact, Somali Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mohamed Abdirizak rejected the IGAD report “in its entirety” as the investigators were “biased, partisan, unfair, compromised, and predetermined to exonerate Kenya”. He added, “Somalia strongly holds to all its initial accusations against Kenya and will pursue all means to protect her sovereignty.”
Meanwhile, the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying: “The report of the fact-finding mission affirms the fact that the allegations by Somalia against Kenya are wholly unfounded.” The statement added, “The impartial report definitively settles the matter, Kenya will not be drawn into the reckless campaign whose sole intent remains the creation of artificial fissures for parochial and domestic ends at the expense of regional peace and security and regional integration.”
The release of the IGAD report closely follows recent violence along the Somali side of the two countries’ shared border, with nine people killed over the past few days. Somalia’s information ministry has alleged that Kenya is training Jubaland rebels to attack Somali troops, and claimed that its soldiers have “captured 100 rebels trained by Kenya during the fighting”.
Somali Information Minister Osman Abokor Dubbe said, “Ordinary militias don't have mortars and missiles,” adding, “This is proof that Kenya is arming those rebels.” Kenya, however, has fervently denied these accusations, with Kenyan Internal Security Minister Fred Matiangi saying that the recent violence is “internal to Somalia and has nothing to do with us” and that Kenya is “not involved in it and none of our forces [have] crossed the border to go to Somalia”.
Somalia has also accused Kenyan troops who form part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) of abdicating their responsibilities, saying that this is creating a ‘vacuum’ for terror groups like Al-Shabaab to exploit.
Somalia first suspended ties with Kenya back in December, recalling its ambassador from Nairobi and ordering Kenya’s envoy to Mogadishu to leave the country, alleging interference in its domestic affairs.
This followed a meeting between Somaliland leader Muse Bihi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi. Somaliland is a self-proclaimed country that declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but is considered by most international actors and Mogadishu itself to be a part of Somalia. Hence, Kenya’s actions are seeing as legitimising a separatist group.
Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, Mohamud Ahmed Nur, who also acts as the country’s Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also accused Kenya of pressuring the leader of the Jubaland state, Ahmed Mohamed Islan Madobe, to reject an agreement that was reached between federal states and the federal government in September.
Against this tense backdrop, the escalating violence in the Gedo region in Jubaland and the IGAD report have merely served to further complicate strained bilateral ties between Somalia and Kenya.
Somalia Rejects IGAD Report Exonerating Kenya of Interference in Jubaland
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development found no evidence to back Somalia’s claim that Kenya is training Jubaland rebels to attack the Somalian National Army along their shared border.
January 28, 2021
IMAGE SOURCE: AFPSomali Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mohamed Abdirizak