At approximately 0530 EST, local Somalia media reported that Mogadishu had expelled the Ethiopian Ambassador and ordered the closure of Ethiopian consulates in Garowe and Hargeisa. This has not been confirmed by any official message from the Somali government.
#UPDATE: The Federal Government of #Somalia have declared the closure of #Ethiopian consulates situated in #Garowe and #Hargeisa, and expelled Ethiopian ambassador in #Mogadishu. pic.twitter.com/pFjRlHVJdA
— Mohamed Salh (@MohamedSelh) April 4, 2024
Ambassador Mukhtar Mohamed Ware only arrived in Somalia on March 13th, 2023. His expulsion is most likely due to the port access deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia.
Somaliland Port Deal
On January 1st, 2024, Ethiopia and Somaliland signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) giving Ethiopia access to the Red Sea via the port of Berbera in return for recognizing Somaliland. The Somali Federal government immediately recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia. On January 6th, President Mohamud signed a parliamentary bill declaring the deal “null and void”, but has taken no steps to deploy troops or intercede Somaliland actions, mostly due to capability while also handling the Al-Shabaab and ISIS threats throughout the country. This deal also brought sharp condemnation from U.S. House of Representatives member Omar who is from Somalia. Her comments brought an uproar of criticism from the GOP which argued that her comments were overtly biased towards a foreign government.
Ethiopia is only one of sixteen nations to maintain an active embassy in Mogadishu and the only nation to have a Consulate-General outside of the Somali capital.
