August 23, 2024
borkena
Toronto – The Federal Government of Somalia complained earlier this week that Ethiopian Airlines and the Dubai based FlyDubai “violated the sovereignty of Ethiopia.”
Ethiopian Airlines on Friday has announced that it has accepted the demand from Somalia Federal government in Mogadishu to make changes to the way the destinations are described.
The action came two days after Hassan Sheik’s government in Mogadishu threatened to ban Ethiopian Airlines flights to the country.
The matter had to do with the way the airlines use codes to describe destinations in Somaliland. On Wednesday, Somalia Civil Aviation Authority announced that Ethiopian Airlines has to address what it called “violation of Somalia’s Sovereignty” within 48 hours .
What is the change that Ethiopian Airlines made to remove the Somalia Federal government’s sovereignty? The airline has been using on its websites the destination in Somaliland as Hargeisa without adding Somalia.
According to a report by BBC, published on Friday, the Ethiopian Airlines added Somalia for bookings to Hargeisa – which is the capital of Somaliland that existed as a de facto state for more than 33 years now.
The Hassan Shek government in Mogadishu does not exercise effective control over Somaliland. In the past few months, the Mogadishu government ordered the closure of Ethiopian consulates in Hargeisa and Puntland but the order was rejected. Somaliland considers itself as a sovereign state with an army of its own and conducts its foreign relations independently. Puntland is an autonomous region although still under Mogadishu. Recently proposed constitutional change in Mogadishu angered Puntland one alleged grounds that the process of amending the constitution was not democratic and that there was no adequate consultation of the amendment of the constitution.
Hassan Sheik Hassan’s government has also been making complaints that “Somali public” has been mistreated when using Ethiopian Airlines but no specific incident has been cited.
It is apparent that Ethiopian Airlines came to be a target for the Federal government of Somalia after Abiy Ahmed’s administration signed a memorandum of understanding on January 1, 2024 – which was supposed to be finalized a month after it was signed. To date the MoU is not finalized.
On January 17, 2024 Somalia redirected Hargeisa bound Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Eritrea, a closest ally of Mogadishu, banned Ethiopian Airlines flights to Asmara as of September 2024 on alleged grounds of missing luggage. Ethiopian Airlines had denied the allegation.
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