Djibouti sends fact-finding team to Somalia-Kenyan border amid tension
DJIBOUTI – Djibouti has sent a commission of inquiry to the Kenya-Somalia border to assess the situation following allegations by Mogadishu that the KDF is mobilizing and arming militias to attack the SNA in the Gedo region.
Djibouti Foreign Minister Mahmud Ali Yusuf told reporters that the team included diplomats and senior military officials who traveled to Mandera and Beled-Hawo on Friday to find the reality on the spot.
During the visit, the meeting will meet with officials and local communities in both border towns in an effort to assess the overall situation and record recent events and current developments.
“The fact-finding commission from Djibouti will assess the situation along the Somali-Kenyan border, particularly in Beled Hawo and Mandera, where tensions have been high these days,” Yusuf said.
The move comes as a result of the 38th extraordinary summit of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) held in Djibouti last week.
The summit, which focused on the conflict in Ethiopia and the diplomatic tensions between Somalia and Kenya, was convened by Abdalla Hamdok, the Prime Minister of Sudan, who is the current chair of the IGAD Assembly.
In his speech, the President of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said that the diplomatic tension between Kenya and Somalia was a concern for the AU and called for an end to the row within the IGAD bloc.
IGAD called on both countries to open dialogue and ease tensions. Somalia and Kenya have been trading accusations in recent weeks as relations rose sharply after Mogadishu severed ties with Nairobi.
The Somali government has convened its ambassador and all diplomats in Nairobi and asked the Kenyan envoy to leave the country within seven days in protest of frequent interference in its internal policies.
Kenya is one of the five East African nations that contributed troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and it has hosted a large population of Somali refugees in Dadaab camps since 1991.
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