Somalia’s President Signs Law Canceling Ethiopia Red Sea Access Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud officially invalidated breakaway region Somaliland’s agreement to grant landlocked Ethiopia access to the Red Sea in exchange for a stake in Ethiopian Airlines.

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Mohamud declared the memorandum of agreement entered into last week between Somaliland, a region of Somalia, and Ethiopia as “illegal,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday evening announcing that he’d signed a law that repealed the deal.

Somalia has said the sea-access deal breaches its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The government said that it will defend and protect the autonomy in a statement following the now-nullified agreement, and recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia for urgent consultation.

The president did not disclose specific details regarding the content of the new law or the timeline of its approval by the Somali parliament.

Officials in Somaliland and Ethiopia didn’t immediately respond when contacted for comment by Bloomberg News.

(Corrects misidentification of Somaliland as ‘landlocked’ and the terms of the deal in the first paragraph.)

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