Mekelle, January 14, 2025 (Tigray Herald)
Ethiopia Follows a Stick-and-Carrot Policy: Implicitly Accusing Egypt of Escalation and Sabotaging Relations with Somalia?
Ethiopia seems to have adopted a stick-and-carrot policy towards Somalia, as it did not apologize for the attack carried out by its military forces in the Somali city of Doolow, targeting government military and security forces, which resulted in the killing of civilians and soldiers. However, Ethiopia expressed its displeasure with Somalia’s statements condemning the attack.
The Ethiopian government’s statement claimed that the incident was the result of a provocative act by unnamed parties, accusing them of seeking to undermine efforts to improve relations between the two countries. Ethiopia described these parties as “perennial spoilers of peace in the Horn of Africa.” These words implicitly point to Egypt as a potential party responsible for these disruptive efforts, reflecting Ethiopia’s intention to blame regional actors for these incidents without providing any clear evidence. Such baseless and implicit accusations only contribute to deepening the crisis rather than resolving it.
Ethiopia reiterated its usual rhetoric of commitment to enhancing cooperation with the Somali government to prevent similar incidents in the future. Instead of acknowledging the mistake and offering a direct apology for the attack that violated Somalia’s sovereignty, Ethiopia merely offered promises of an investigation, without specifying who will carry it out or how it will be conducted.
It remains unclear why Somalia has not called for African Union forces to take charge of the investigation, especially since the incident has complex political and security dimensions. It appears that Somalia faced Turkish efforts to prevent it from withdrawing from talks scheduled in Ethiopia, as Somalia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ali Omar, lodged an official protest regarding the incident to his Ethiopian counterpart, Mesganaw Ariga, who merely expressed his government’s readiness to conduct an immediate investigation, stressing their willingness to work with Somalia to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. Nevertheless, the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement affirmed the commitment of both sides to strengthening dialogue and improving relations, along with mutual respect for sovereignty, unity, independence, and territorial integrity.
The statement also noted that the discussions focused on enhancing regional peace and security through counter terrorism, as well as strengthening bilateral relations and fully implementing the Ankara Declaration, seen as a positive step toward resolving the disputes that have emerged between the two countries since the beginning of this year.
