Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed a law that cancels the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Government of Ethiopia and Somaliland. The symbolic move follows the announcement of a deal on 1 January between Ethiopia and the breakaway Somali region. The deal allows Somaliland to lease a 20-km stretch of its coastline to Ethiopia for a naval base, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said at the signing. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi said the deal also includes a statement that Ethiopia will soon recognize Somaliland as an independent country. This is the main source of dispute. Somaliland has always challenged the legal validity of the union that was supposed to form a unified country after Somalia and Somaliland gained independence from Italy and Britain respectively. Somalia has called the deal an act of "aggression" and recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia. The AU chairperson urged Ethiopia and Somalia to start a negotiation process without delay to resolve their differences. Ethiopia lost its access to the sea when Eritrea split in 1993. Ethiopia has been using the port in neighboring Djibouti for most of its imports and exports. Thousands of residents of the city of Burma in the Udal province of northern Somalia held mass demonstrations to denounce the invalid maritime agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Somaliland administration. The demonstrators who gathered in the city center, according to the Somali news agency "SONA", on Sunday, chanted slogans against the president of Somaliland, saying that such a false agreement will never be enforced in Somali territory. The demonstrators applauded the decision of the Somali government to oppose the agreement signed on the first of this month between the prime minister of Ethiopia and outgoing President Musa Bihi Abdi in Addis Ababa. They praised the diplomatic efforts of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on this issue, which made many countries of the world support Somalia. They also warned about the dangers of the deal and urged the crowd to unite to defend the sovereignty of Somalia. During the rally, participants talked about the possible long-term effects of the deal, as well as the need for a united front to fight any threats to national freedom and economic stability that the deal might cause in the future.
