MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Massive protests against a recent deal between Somaliland and Ethiopia, which grants the latter an access to a leased land along the Red Sea, took place in several towns in the breakaway region of northern Somalia on Sunday.
Protesters chanting slogans, including “our sea is not for sale”, took to the streets of the towns of Borama, Burao and Lughaya, days after the deal, which the Somali federal government and members of the country’s political elites called “illegal”, sent shockwaves throughout the Horn of Africa nation.
Similar protests took place in Mogadishu and in Al-Shabaab-controlled town of Jilib.
A video circulated on social media, showed residents in the town of Lughaya, where Ethiopia is set to build a navy according to the terms of the agreement, taking up arms and vowing to defend their town from a potential Ethiopian invasion. The residents urged other Somalis to help them in defending the territorial integrity and sovereignty of their nation.
The controversial deal has united the Somali masses in the north and the south of the country for the first time since the collapse of the central government of President Mohamed Siyad Barre.
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