NAIROBI: Somalia’s aviation authority threatened to suspend all Ethiopian Airlines flights to the country, state media said Wednesday, the latest act in a long-running dispute over a breakaway region.
Addis Ababa signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year with Somaliland to lease 20 kilometers (12 miles) of coast for 50 years, allowing the landlocked country much-desired access to the coast.
In return Somaliland — which unilaterally declared independence from Somalia in 1991 — has said Ethiopia will become the first country to formally recognize it, a step Addis Ababa has yet to confirm.
Ethiopian Airlines flies to Somaliland’s largest city Hargeisa, as well as to Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and four Somalian provincial cities.
The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) said that state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, had not addressed previous complaints on the “sovereignty issues” and was “removing references to Somali destinations, and retaining only Airport Codes.”
“This action exacerbates the original concerns and undermines the sovereignty of Somalia,” the SCAA said in a letter published by state media.
Should the issues remain unresolved by August 23, it said, “the SCAA will have no choice but to suspend all Ethiopian Airlines flights to Somalia, effective from that date.”
“Any future recurrence, such as not properly identifying the destinations in Somalia, will result in suspension without further warning,” the letter added.
Ethiopian Airlines’s website currently lists Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa without a country and a search for “Somaliland” shows no destinations. A search for Mogadishu clearly identifies it as being in Somalia.
The letter added the SCAA had also “received an increasing number of unacceptable complaints from the Somali public regarding their travel experiences with Ethiopian Airlines.”
A separate letter, also shared by Somali state media, was addressed to the Emirati government-owned Fly Dubai.
It said the airline must address “serious violations” and make “accurate representation of destinations” within Somalia on its booking and ticketing services.
The firm’s website currently lists the city of Hargeisa in Somaliland. Fly Dubai suspended its Mogadishu route in June over security concerns.
The SCAA said failure to comply by August 24 would result in the “immediate revocation of Fly Dubai’s operating permit within Somalia.”
The letters come following indirect talks between Somalia and Ethiopia, coordinated by Turkiye, whose Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan cited “notable progress” earlier this month.
Somaliland, which is relatively stable compared to the rest of the Horn of Africa region, has its own institutions, prints its own money and issues passports.
But it is poor and isolated because of the absence of any international recognition, despite its strategic location on the straits leading to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.