His Excellency the President of the Republic of Somaliland, Musa Bihi Abdi, and the delegation he led were received at Bole International Airport by Ethiopia’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Aklilu Hailemecheal, upon arrival, Sunday.
President departed for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the Heads of African states are convened at the 23rd AU Summit.
According to a brief statement the Presidency released, Sunday, the President has scheduled meetings with a number of leaders and diplomats across the continent.
His Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Professor, Yassin Mohamoud Hiir ‘Faratoon’, assisted by several notable Somaliland diplomats, including the very formidable, Abdullahi Mohamed Haji Duale, the Somaliland rep at the AU centre and a former foreign minister of the republic, has been moving among the leaders weaving diplomatic splices together, bridging gaps where needed, dissipating misconceptions about Somalialnd’s restoration of its independence and correcting implanted fallacies where necessary, according to confidential sources.
The president, who flew out in the afternoon, would be there for an unspecified number of days, depending on the course of events.
On this trip, President Bihi is accompanied by the Minister for Agriculture, Mohamed Mumin Seed, Livestock Husbandry and Fisheries, Saeed Sulub Mohamed, Minister for Constitution and Coordination of Councils, Mohamed Haji Adan, and Dr Osman Sheikh Ahmed, Economic Advisor to the President.
The AU has recently decided to take ownership of long-sputtering Somaliland-Somalia talks on key issues which have remained impotent, and under Somalia sabotage, since they started in 2012.
With the increasing visibility of Somaliland as an undeniable geo-strategic kingpin in regional diplomacy and security and 30-year-old established democracy and stability as opposed to the UN-backed, international graveyard that is Somalia, the winds, according to political analysts, are blowing on its favour at present.
Africa appears to be waking up to the reality next door that is the Republic of Somaliland – at long last, or so it appears.
