In his annual constitutional speech before a joint session of the two houses of Somaliland parliament, President Muse Bihi Abdi gave a lengthy account of his recent official visit to Addis Abba where has met the Ethiopian PM Abiye Ahmed, who has also arranged for a previously undisclosed encounter between him and the President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdillahi Farmaajo.
The president has completely rejected rumors of the story that the Ethiopian PM Abiy have brokered a visit of Farmaajo to the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa. This rumor has created havoc and confusion within Somaliland nation. Somaliland has declared its independence from the Somali Republic in 1991 in response to world-denounced atrocities committed by the late Siyad Barre regime.
President Bihi, who is a veteran ex-commander of Somaliland liberation Movement, has also disclosed that the only topic the PM of Ethiopia has raised with him and the President of Somalia was an offer to mediate in the upcoming negotiations between Somaliland and Somalia aimed at resolving the issue of the independence of Somaliland.
It is worth noting that after returning to Mogadishu, Mr Farmajo has made a public apology to the people of Somaliland for the atrocities committed during the 1980s. This was the first such admission by a sitting leader of Somalia since the two territories severed relations in 1991.
President Muse has accepted the apology offered by Farmaajo as a step in the right direction, albeit grossly insufficient. Mr Farmaajo happens to hail from the same Somali sub-tribe of Siyad Barre, the brutal dictator that has orchestrated and also executed the massacre of the people of Somaliland between the years 1988 and 1990.
President Muse concluded his lengthy speech with an emotional note touching on the atrocities committed by Farmaajo’ Uncle, the late president of the now defunct Somali Democratic Republic.
Finally, the President of Somaliland has explicitly rejected any rapprochement or relationship with Somalia as long as they do not acknowledge the right of the people of Somaliland to self-determination as enshrined in UN Charter and unless they recognize Somaliland as an independent and sovereign nation