Somalia’s government on Sunday, January 19, dismissed reports that it had recalled its ambassador to Kenya amid a row over a flight from a key Somali port city to Nairobi.
Source: Somalia’s ministry of foreign affairs.
Quote: “The news circulating on social media alleging that our ambassador to Kenya has been recalled to Mogadishu is completely baseless and should be dismissed as fake news.”
Details: The denial came after a prominent news website, Garowe Online, reported that the Somali federal government had “summoned its ambassador to Kenya, Jibril Ibrahim Abdulle, back to Mogadishu for consultations”.
The website said the alleged recall was in response to a Kenyan aircraft flying the president of Somalia’s Jubaland state from Kismaayo to Nairobi without authorization from Somali aviation authorities.
Ahmed Mohamed Islam, alias Ahmed Madobe, arrived in the Kenyan capital on Saturday for his first trip outside Jubaland since his re-election late last year.
Background: Somalia’s federal government has said it does not recognize the Jubaland leader’s re-election for a third term in November, has issued a warrant for his arrest and imposed restrictions on commercial flights to the state, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia.
The dispute between Jubaland and the federal government stems from controversial changes to Somalia’s provisional constitution in 2024 and plans to organize nationwide one-person one-vote elections for the first time in decades.
Somalia has reportedly issued a formal note of protest to Kenya over the flight from Kismaayo, to which Nairobi has not publicly responded yet.
