MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – IGAD leaders pressured Somalia to end dispute and deescalate tensions with Kenya, Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdirisak said on Monday, weeks after the Horn of Africa country severed diplomatic ties with the government of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta over alleged polls interference.
Briefing press in the capital Mogadishu, following his return from Djibouti where a one-day summit of IGAD leaders was held, Somali FM told reporters that IGAD leaders put pressure on his government to bring an end to the diplomatic dispute with Kenya by deescalating tensions as the first step.
Mohamed Abdirisak noted that Somali government set a condition for the proposal that a committee will be appointed to look into Somalia’s complaints.
The remarks have come days after Somalia announced severing diplomatic relations with Kenya, which are currently at their lowest point in decades, over alleged polls interference and summoned back staff at its embassy in Nairobi while giving Kenyan diplomats a seven-day ultimatum to leave the war-torn country.
Kenya has thousands of troops in Somalia fighting Islamist militants which control large swathes of territory in the country and the government of Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo deems their presence a threat to its own interests due to Kenya’s support for Jubaland President Ahmed Madobe, whose administration has been in a heated dispute with Somali federal government over the past months following his reelection late last year.
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