MOGADISHU, Somalia – The president of Somalia Hassan Sheikh is heading to Kampala, Uganda on Wednesday to attend a planned IGAD summit on the current crisis in the Horn.
The heads of state of an African bloc will meet on Jan. 18 to discuss the worsening diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Somalia over a disputed sea access deal, and the ongoing fighting in Sudan.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni will host the “extraordinary” Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit, according to a statement issued late Thursday by the current chairman of the bloc, Ismail Omar Guelleh who is also the president of Djibouti.
“His Excellency Ismail Omar Guelleh, President of the Republic of Djibouti, in his capacity as Current Chair of IGAD has the honour to convene an Extraordinary IGAD Summit on two main issues that are the ongoing situation between the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Federal Republic of Somalia and the situation in the Republic of Sudan,” said a statement issued by the Djibouti Foreign Ministry.
It requested the regional bloc’s Secretariat in Djibouti to make “necessary consultations with member states for their attendance.”
The leaders of the Eastern Africa bloc held a summit earlier last month in Djibouti to discuss the Sudan conflict that has been raging in the country since Apr. 15, 2023.
The IGAD region has seen growing tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia after Addis Ababa signed a sea access agreement with Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland on Jan. 1 without the approval of Mogadishu.
