A senior Somali official insisted Saturday that Ethiopia will not participate in a new African Union peacekeeping mission starting in January.
The two nations remain deadlocked over a Memorandum of Understanding that Ethiopia signed with the breakaway region, Somaliland, earlier this year.
"I can say that Ethiopia is the only government we know of so far that will not participate in the new AU mission because it has violated our sovereignty and national unity," Somalia Defense Minister Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur said Saturday in a government-run television interview.
African Union troops from several countries have been operating in Somalia since 2007. They started with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) before changing the mission and its name on April 1, 2022, to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). Its mandate ends at the end of this year.
For 17 years, the African Union mission helped Somalia combat al-Shabab, a violent extremist organization that threatened to overthrow the government and impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
The aim of past and upcoming missions is to hand over security responsibility to the Somali National Forces.
The nation is preparing for a third peace support operation, set to begin January 1, 2025, when a new mission, the African Union Support Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), replaces ATMIS.
According to a United Nations report in August, ATMIS has been drawing down troops from about 20,000 to less than 13,000. The new mission is expected to number at least 12,000. AUSSOM is scheduled to operate until the end of 2028.
It is not the first time Somalia has rejected the involvement of Ethiopian troops in a peacekeeping mission in the country.
In August, Somalia Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Ethiopian forces would only join AUSSOM once Addis Ababa withdraws from the MoU with Somaliland.
Mogadishu, which sees Somaliland as a part of Somalia, has described the agreement as an assault on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Analysts say Somalia's repeated demands that Ethiopia withdraw from the MoU have fallen on deaf ears, which further alienates Somalia.
Professor Sonkor Geyre, a former director of the defense ministry, said Somalia has a right to choose the countries it wants and rejects others.
"Somalia has national sovereign rights to exclude Ethiopia from the upcoming AU mission because it sees Ethiopia's actions, including its MoU with Somaliland, as a national threat," Geyre told VOA Somali.
Last month, the leaders of Somalia, Eritrea, and Egypt signed a security cooperation deal seen as an anti-Ethiopia front, and Mogadishu has also boosted its military ties with Cairo, which has offered troops for the new AU mission.
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"There is an ongoing procedure that we will share and announce when the time comes regarding the new governments that will join and the previous ones who will not be part of the new mission," Nur, the defense minister, said.
Under the current AU mission, at least 3,000 Ethiopian soldiers officially operate as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission fighting al-Shabab. Another 5,000 to 7,000 Ethiopian soldiers are stationed in several regions under a bilateral agreement.
Other countries contributing to the current AU forces in Somalia include Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, and Uganda.
