A delegation the Interior Minister of Djibouti, Moumin Ahmed Sheikh Sa’ad, led arrive on an official visit to the Republic of Somaliland, Saturday.
Somaliland Interior Minister, Mohamed Kahin Ahmed, and Abdiqani Mohamoud Atteye, Justice Minister, and members of the bicameral parliament received the delegation at Egal International Airport upon arrival.
Unofficially, the delegation was said to have come to pay their respects to the family of MP Ahmed Abdi Kahin, a member of the Somaliland House of Representatives, who passed away on Thursday in Hargeisa – a reason hardly anybody bought.
The Djiboutienne Minister, for one, comes at a time there was a raging controversy surrounding a projected submarine fibre optic internet cable to enter the country at Berbera.
Djibouti said so. Then recanted the statement two days later. Somaliland said so declaring that only Somcable held an official concession to provide fibre optic internet services for the next 25 years. Then it recalled the assertion over an interview the Somaliland Minister of Technology granted a local paper, Saxansaxo, a day later.
Minister Abdiweli admitted that Somtel, a leading provider of GSM and Internet services, held a stake of the cable which his government blocked entry of.
In the same interview, Friday, the Minister claimed the government only gave Somcable a ‘license’ and not a monopoly and that his ministry was working on another bill which paved the way for a powerful acquisition of a more dependable service to be co-owned by the government Somtel, Telesom and Somcable.
The President said nothing of being made to stand in front of a map showing the planned routes of the cable which lumped the independent Somaliland Republic with Somalia on big stencilled letters splashed across Somaliland territory. Informed sources indicate that the President signalled he was no averse to diverting the service to his country before it passed on to Bossasso, Mogadishu and Bossasso.
