Addis Abeba — President of the Somali regional state, Mustafe M.Omer, and neighboring Somalia's South West region President, Abdiaziz Laftagareen, met on Monday 08 August in Jigjiga, the capital of the Somali Regional State and agreed to fight against Al-Shabaab militants. This came in the backdrop of the foiled incursion in some parts of Ethiopia's Somali region by the terrorist group.

According to Jowhar news from Somalia, during their meeting, the two officials discussed the overall security of the border areas following Al-Shabaab's incursion to the Somali region through Afdheer zone on 20 July. The militants crossed from Aato area, in Bakool region of neighboring Somalia bordering Ethiopia's Somali region.

The two leaders agreed on Monday to form a security partnership aimed at driving Al-Shabaab out of the border villages. South West leader Abdiaziz Laftagareen flew from Baidoa to Ethiopia on an Ethiopian military jet on Friday, where he met with senior military and security officials on border security, according to the news.

Last week, senior military officers of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), and senior Somali region security officers traveled to Somaliland, Jubaland, Beledweyne, and Baidoa, where they held meetings with senior regional military and political officials on coordinating and collaborating the military measures to neutralize the activities of Al-Shabaab militants.

In a separate development, the Jigjiga University in Somali regional state has announced that it has given free scholarship to 30 students from neighboring Somalia.

The announcement was made by Dr. Bashir Abdulahi, President of Jigjiga University, during the visit of President Abdiaziz Laftagareen of Southwest Region of Somalia, who also held discussions with community leaders and the elders of the Somali Region.

In the discussion, the two sides consulted on ways of strengthening people-to-people relations and cooperation, according to information from Somali regional state communication bureau. AS