Somaliland
SOMALILAND: Ministers return from Egypt, Kenya
December 31, 2011 · 38 Comments
Photograph: Dr Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt is to provide all means of legal and scientific support to Somaliland (Wednesday 28,2011 — Al Wafd).
HARGEISA — Foreign affairs minister Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omar accompanied by the minister for presidential palace Mr. Hirsi Ali, returned on Saturday to the country, after a short diplomatic trip to Kenya and Egypt. Speaking to press at Egal International airport’s VIP room, Dr. Omar emphasised that Somaliland and Egypt entered a new important stage in their bilateral relationship. He stated Egypt was ready to reverse a two decade-old policy that blocked Somaliland interest and was willing to establish ties.
“We paid an official visit to Cairo with the purpose of a new beginning in mind. A fresh start that involves bilateral and a broader cooperation based on shared interests,” he noted. He said his meetings with Egyptian and Arab League officials including Egypt’s Minister for International Cooperation and deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Arab League provided him with a timely opportunity to address Somaliland’s interests.
The two ministers also met with Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Mrs Mona Omar, Special Representative to Somalia and Somaliland, Mr Ayman Magdy, and the Grand Mufti of Egypt Dr Ali Gomaa.
The visit, extremely significant as it was the first of its kind, was aimed at boosting relations between the two African states who were always at odds. The foreign ministry last week said the minister received an official invitation from Egypt for talks and expressed optimism outcome. Dr. Omar said relations with Egypt was strategic for Somaliland and would contribute greatly to the region’s stability and security.
Ties between the two African states has been sour during the rule of Egypt’s ousted President Hosni Mubarak in the last two-decades. Hargeisa accused Egypt of blocking its bid to gain full recognition. It argued Egypt had used its strong position within the AU and the Arab League, also a strong ally of U.S. and Israel, to block Somaliland recognition.
Egypt’s government has always maintained it recognizes the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu, which controls only few blocks, as the sole authority in Somalia. After a devastating conflict with Mogadishu that left hundreds of thousands dead, Somaliland ended its voluntary union with Somalia in 1991. However there are reports that the landmark visit has raised hackles in Mogadishu pointing towards Cairo’s change of heart and policy. Egyptian embassies and consulates are said to be overwhelmed with letters of protest from Mogadishu and pro-union camps led by former President of Somalia Abdulqasim Salat.
On their last leg, the ministers met with Somaliland students currently studying at universities in Cairo. They thanked the students for their time, briefed them about the situation back home and encouraged them to pursue in their tertiary education path.
During their visit to the Kenyan capital, they met with senior Western diplomats regarding key areas including democracy and security. They touched on the topic of strengthening and deepening bilateral cooperation with their respective countries and agencies. They further informed the ambassadors about the upcoming local council elections that are supposed to take place in the country in early 2012.
Somalilandpress
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By Mo Guled
Tags: Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omar, Egypt, Hirsi Haji Hassan, Kenya, Somaliland
Readers Comments (38)
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Another BS getting the coverage, when they leaving they get coverage, inside the plane/boat/truck and when they return the same. They achieved little for the every day Somalilander, in Egypt they met with a mufti and misleading us.
I saw the photos on the Arab newspaper…who needs a Mufti? This wasnt foreign policy more like Masajid Ali Matan mission to Al-Azhar.
Kayse What is better masjid Ali Matan. remember this is temporary life and your fate here after is decided what you do in this life.
Mustafa
I am not talking about whether politic is more important than religion but I am saying they (ministers) are misleading us by claiming bilateral ties when they just met with a mufti. I would be so happy if they said al-Azhar is willing to take our students rather than all that mambo jambo and lies.
I am just saying why do they need to lie? They met a mufti and our ali matan will now have an egyptian twin (matan)…Kapeesh?
Kayse,
I totally agree with you, in that our foreign minister and his delegation were supposed to meet with their counterparts; if they went there for a religious visit, then they should have declared it as such. By the way, I am extremely leery and skeptical about all Arabs in general and Egyptians in particular, as they are the one country that vowed to thwart any discussion about Somaliland at the AU.
Slnpress kindly bring forward meaningful Articles for serious comments. This Article is poorly
presented and doesn't serve the good interests of Somaliland and Egypt. Somaliland official
trip to Egypt for the first time since 1991 should have positive impact for the political uplifts of
both the two Afro-Arab Islamic countries. Both countries share deep historical ideological ties
dating back to the Ancient generations. Let's all welcome this new beginning of fraternal and bilateral
relationship opening Chapter between the two Afro-Arab countries and say ahlan wa sahlan.
Cheers.
Arabs are our brothers, egyptions have been our spritual leaders for cencuries. This peace of news is posative, it is a good start, we can biuld on it. Specialy that fact that Mr Hisrsi is flying without President Silaanyo is good news. May be next month he will fly to Mekka and meet sheikh Suaysi of S. Arabia
stone by stone we will biuld a better future, insha Allah
What's meant by tertiary education. Ridiculous and disgusting poor article.
Cheers.
In the memory of Beledweyne as its ceded by Ethiopia tonight.
"Bi'i waa jacaylow…boodhari inuu dilay
been baan u haystee…bi'i waa jacaylow
boogaan la dhayinoo…cidi baanan karinoo
beerka iyo wadnaha iyo bogga kaaga taalliyo
inuu yahay bir caashaqu…been baan u haystee"
"beledweyn alahayow
ka dhig guri barwaaqee
beerlula alahayow
balaayada hareer mari"
And he is the funny story, at the time Hadrawi wrote that he was forced soldier with no freedom or choice living under f9qash rule…30 years later his Beledweyne is gone due to f9ash policies by making the state a failed state while Ethiopia became a regional powerhouse…
To make things worse the sons of f9ash and warlords are still crying after us from refugee camps while people feed their kids for them. No shame at all.
* here
You are wasting your time and energy to support wrong leadership and corrupted ministers. They lie and mislead you and the whole population of Somaliland. You look like you head is full of your clan man love but not you country. Everyday these minister are mishandling their duties and you are supporting their misrepresentations, corruptions and looting. You are shameless traitor or dummy who love to advocate for his sub clan interest but nothing else.
Who is feeding your kids that you left behind in that failed refugee camp that you consider a country? I got spare bread thats why I asked.
Go home and feed your children, Somalia is gone and its in the belly of Ethiopia and Kenya.
@ Zakariy Ahmed
I don't see the point of receiving "secessionists" as Somalia's delegation. What a poor judgment!
@ Kayse & Raage
Arab media have always been against Somaliland and its gains. So it’s no brainer they will air what is in line with their old and dirty policies.
Considered how powerful Egypt is in both Arab League and AU level and how they always opposed to our case, this is a great step toward reversing that animosity. Then..this is the time to forge new connection. I mean when a country’s old government collapses and political winds change. Let’s welcome it guy!
I personally am happy the way the current government conducts our foreign policy. The Foreign Minister is relentlessly knocking each and every door for the sake of sovereign Somaliland. Exploring relations with Egypt while in good terms with Ethiopia is a sign of balanced and unbiased foreign policy. Courting China while having good relations with Westerner countries (mainly Britain), can be expected only from veteran politicians.
Let's not to forget that most of the political dealings are kept secret and not announced to the public.
We are Africans not Arabs and have nothing common with them except the religion. Most modern Egyptians have no relationship with the ancient Egyptian they migrating from Mediterranean countries. They want to annexed Somalia in general. They attempted many occasions in the past and you must know that history too. This delegation were received as a Somali regional delegation. It was published on many news papers and websites in many languages. Why are they trying misleading us.
It funny how hard you are trying to mislead our view of these shameless ministers. They are not telling the truth to the Somaliland people. It is fact and very clear that they met low rank Egyptian officers and they were treated as Somali regional delegation. It was published in Arabic and Somali languages before they returned. What happened to Somaliland press credibility and accountability as a media organization. See the picture it was taken inside mosque in Egypt. What is this shameless misleading and cheap journalism.
We all know your made about Somaliland's new diplomatic mission and every day more nations are beginning to abandon the little refugee camp in Mogadishu that you call government guarded by foreign troops who are only there for your women…if you think this is a lie and a propaganda what brings you to this website?
The fact remains Somalia doesn't have English websites, everything is failed and all you have is foreign troops looting your women and villages.
Tell me what do the Kenyans think of the girls in Kismayo? I heard alot about Halwo-Kismayo..what about the Burundis and Ugandans in Mogadishu…I heard they breeding Bantu kids like rats…Ethiopians love Beledweyne and beyond…maybe the next child born in Beledweyne in nine months time will be named Wecel Haile Mariam
Go protect your failed refugee camp, feed your kids and liberate your women. Dont come here crying.
hahahahah protesters included Abdiqasim salato, what a joke! These warlords never give up, they want more blood and more blood. Lets hope the Kenyans, Ethiopians and the other forces wipe them out.
I can only imagine what ina Salato said in his letter:
"I the president of Zoomalia urge the Egyptians to rethink before I bomb you like Hosni with my technical, Abdi-bile, Muufo bomb and Dameer (donkey) torpedo missile. I say this because now the food that was feeding my warlord children will go to Waqooyi Galbeed (Somaliland). How dare the Egyptians neglect my hyena kids for qaldaamos? I hate qaldaamos because they out smarted my donkey people…used us, told us we IRIR, made me shoot my abgaalo dameer cousin (Ali Mahdi), made me replace and hunt down dooros and their afweyne……then left me with nothing…….I hate qaldaamos and their politics. Now we Dameeros think AK47s are playstation, we kill 100 every single day and qaldaamoos haven't lost 10 in twenty years and still say WE SUFFERED THE MOST….*looks for his dameer….I will ride to QAHIRA, HARGEYSOOO and ADDIS ABABA to eat your kids……so rethink EGYPT we are moryaan cannibals"
The Egyptians just threw the thing in the Nile. Poor Mooryaans.
diplomatic ties begins with baby steps, lets not be naive and childish, we haven't reach this far as a country and people if we rushed on every little issues and politics.
Lets be cautious and diplomatic about the official visit of the two ministers to Egypt, and we have have to trust our leaders and pray for them to reach and positive decision for the sake of our children and our future of Somaliland our homeland.
God bless Somaliland regardless of whom it seeks ties with whether be Israel, Egypt or China. I personally believe Egypt is an important nation but more beneficial ties would be Israel, China and India.
Arab countries have nothing to offer if they had anything they would help Somalia feed its starving kids dying in Kenyan and Ethiopian refugee camps as a member of the so called League of Arab States.
Israel is a better ally.
Israel won't help you for free, what do you have to offer her? Israel has the upper hand with her relations with african countries, do you want the same?
Our foreign policy needs to be daring and charasmatic. We need to knock on every door and engage all goverments even if they are not keen on our secession. At the end of the day we're the ones seeking recognition & nobody is going to come knocking on our door to hand us the recognition on a plate.. We have to be the ones to make our case to the WORLD!!
If the Somalilan pple wanted to stick with the old sitting duck policies of engaging with few sympathetic goverments and ignoring everyone else like habar dudaysa oo kale, simply because they're against our secession, they would have voted for UDUB!!..Hada waxa meelkasta ka cabadaya wa the UDUB folks oo xisbi la ;-) Somalilanders voted for change and with ALaah's blessing this country will Inshaah Alaah change for the bettert Mr Mohamed Abdulahi Omar will leave no door unturned when it comes to the recognition of Somaliland. Naivityga dadkeena bal eega i hear them iyago dhaliil oga dhigaya that he is never in Hargeisa, personaly i would have been very concerned if all he did was stay in Hargeisa
xDxD
HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS!
Happy new year for 2012 fellows. Personally I welcome Hargeisa Cairo renewed relations on
all fronts. I also welcome the Cairo possibility recognition of Somaliland to become a full member
of the AL/OIC and the UN. Already Somalia and Djibouti are full members in the Al/OIC/UN.
Somaliland,Somalia,Djibouti as Sovereign States will be a healthy sign for all the Igad/E.A. bloc.
and will contribute to world peace,security, stability and progress into sustainable prosperities
shared peacefully by all nations under the UN universal charter for all nations to co-exist by peaceful
means rather than forceful evil ways of hi-tech sophisticated arsenal curses calling the shots
between the strong and the successful and weak and failed statesof the World. based on misunderstood ideological differences. Let's hope that 2012 will bring about better times for the wellbeing of all mankind.
Cheers..
Some people believe that we should not have ties with Israel! Do you know majority of Arabs has ties with them so why not with Somaliland?
"majority of Arabs has ties with them " true but against the wish of their people, do you want the same with Somaliland?
guys im worried that this government is secretly trying to reunite with somalia – if that's true then the military must overthrow this administration fo the sake of our independence LONG LIVE SOMALILAND
Israel would be a good ally with all its hi-tech weapons we could redraw the map of the Horn and trust me Somalilanders wont be afraid to use it.
I would personally suggest building a wall between Somaliland and failed Somalia like the one in Gaza so we could keep the rabbits and their diseases out.
Abdiwahab
There is no reunification coming in the next 300000 years, thats just fake propaganda by few angry former UDUB supporters and wild dream from the useless mooryaans and their fqash foot soldiers.
Who would unify with people who cant even feed their mothers? Do you want your mother in dadaab or badbaado or hooyo refugee camp?
Kayse Bhai keep all options open. By making big noises everywhere some luck might show up.
Cheers.
Egypt is changing and so has its views on Somaliland. For god sake they liberated themselves from a tyrant much like we have! They realise that Somaliland is moving on and so are they. We are both muslim and africans and should try to build better relations.
Also who are the idiots saying we shouldnt have relations with Israel, you can still have relations with a country even if you dont agree with certain parts of their relations with the palestinians.
I am sure there are other things we can cooperate on besides what palestinian squats where. I heard the palestinians were the worst out of all the arabs not to generalize but ask yourselves what have the arabs done for us lately?
This foreign ministers is working his a** off and I welcome it.
I encourage our Foreign minister to visit Israel and negotiate with. Why we scare of engaging this people whom we do not have conflict of our own. Yes, the Palestinians issue is a Muslim issue as whole, but look what the Arab brothers of Palestine did for them. They keep them longing for their right 64 years, and kept us in dark for 21 long years. Why we should not have a descent relations with the people of Israel? Someone has to tell me why?
Let us break the artificial barriers between the two people and engage them.
I see the folks at Somalilandpress are removing comments that are neither profane nor abusive, but they just happen to disagree with their editorial policy. So much for free speech and freedom of expression. Well, I think the Foreign minister is a failure, his policies are a failure and his trip to Egypt was a waste of time and money. If you can print these comment, and leave for others to read and comment, then I will have some respect for you.
Saleebaan, don't you have anything else to do, except to hate and go after our foreign minister? His boss knows what he does, and how he is dong now. Just leave the man, and do something more better for our country. Stop this witch-hunt, and advise him to you wish our foreign policy should go in your view, but what you are doing does not make things good.
Brotherly advise for you and those like you to speak positively towards our minister. If he is not up to his job, then the President has to take action, and not us.
Correction: Stop this witch-hund, and advise him how you wish to see our foreign policy should go and run, in your view.
Yes! Relations with any one who will recognize us is welcome.
Seleebaan, your comments are deleted immediately and not after someone at SLpress reads it, this is due to some pre-defined parameters that sometimes works well and sometimes not. The fact that you could not determine that no one is censoring what you are writing, which I think is common sense tells me you are basing your beef with the FM on wrong reasons and I am willing to go out on a limb and say that your problem is Qabiil based and I can guess your qabill but I choose to refrain from doing so.
Saleebaan, your problem is your clan mentality. We are proud of our foreig policy achievements. The visit to Egypt is the a success. Thanks to the wise President and the competent Foreign Minister of Somaliland.
Saleeban, your problem is your clan mentality. We are very proud of our foreign policy achievements under the current government.The visit to Egypt was a great success. Thanks to the wise president and the competent Foreign Minister of Somaliland.
Once again, Somalilandpress removes my rebutall. I don't know have a clan mentality, and anyone who argues that has no argument. I am from the same clan as Dr. Omar, if tjis is some comfort to some. I just dsagree with his policies and if the folks at this forum left my comment from last night, one would see my reasons for making this claim. Folks, life is not all sunshine and clear blue skies. We need to discuss seriously issues about Somaliland without being profane and abusive. I have done neither. I just don't agree with Dr. Omar's policies and I don't think he has tools to make progress for Somaliland in the international arena. Simple as that…
Saleebaan Xaaji,
We need to discuss seriously and also honestly. You have every right to disagree with the Minister, but don't make it too personal and keep in mind that the minister's policy is essentially that of the council of the ministers and the the president of the nation. I personally consider this gentleman honorable, active and effective in advancing our foreign policy.
SALEEBAAN XAAJI:
Only time will tell you what Dr.Mohamed is capable and then fell down. Leave the gentleman in peace. No one should support anyone on the basis of clan affiliation. We are all Somalilanders, I see this young man as honest and intelligent to make the difference.
History will only tell which one of us is on the right track. God, the Almighty Bless Somaliland our beloved country.