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.
Somalia threatens to suspend Ethiopian Airlines over sovereignty spat
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Somalia threatens to suspend Ethiopian Airlines over sovereignty spat
- Ethiopian Airlines flies to Somaliland’s largest city Hargeisa, as well as to Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and four Somalian provincial cities
- Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) said that state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest carrier, had not addressed previous complaints on the ‘sovereignty issues’
Russian missile hit an Egypt-bound wheat cargo ship in Black Sea: Zelensky
- “Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said
- There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike
KYIV: A Russian missile on Thursday morning hit an Egypt-bound cargo ship in the Black Sea carrying wheat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Black Sea is a crucial trading route for Ukraine, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers and exporters, but was turned into a naval battleground when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Russian missile against a wheat cargo bound for Egypt ... Russia launched a strike on an ordinary civilian vessel in the Black Sea right after it left Ukrainian territorial waters,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
There were no casualties from the attack, Zelensky added, urging global condemnation after the strike.
“Domestic stability and normal life in dozens of countries around the world are dependent on the normal and unhindered operation of our food expert corridor,” he said.
Moscow last year pulled out of a UN-brokered deal guaranteeing safe passage for Ukraine’s agricultural exports on the Black Sea, but Kyiv has carved out a maritime corridor allowing trade to continue.
Over 5,000 ships have sailed through the grain corridor since it was created, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Wednesday.
Global food prices shot up when Russia invaded Ukraine amid fears conflict in the Black Sea would hobble global food supplies.
Sweden wants to pay immigrants up to $34,000 to return: govt
- As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to $34,000
STOCKHOLM: Sweden's government said Thursday it would drastically increase grants for immigrants who choose to leave the country, in order to encourage more migrants to make the choice.
As of 2026, immigrants who voluntarily return to their home countries would be eligible to receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor ($34,000), up from the current 10,000 kronor, the right-wing government, which is propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, said in a statement.
Polish FM sees limit on influencing Iran after Russia missiles transfer
- “The trouble for Poland is that Iran is already under such severe sanctions that there is not that much more that we can do,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said
- “I’m disappointed, because we have a new president of Iran“
WARSAW: Poland’s foreign minister conceded Thursday that there were limits on how to influence Iran, already under heavy sanctions, after Tehran allegedly shipped short-range missiles to Russia to attack Ukraine.
Western powers this week imposed new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, including state carrier Iran Air, and Ukraine warned it may cut off relations with Tehran.
“The trouble for Poland is that Iran is already under such severe sanctions that there is not that much more that we can do,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said when asked if Poland, a staunch backer of Ukraine, would also sever ties.
He was speaking at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Tuesday said that Russia could start firing the Iranian missiles into Ukraine within weeks.
Western powers had warned Iran against the move, and Sikorski noted that it came shortly after Iranians elected President Masoud Pezeshkian, seen as a reformist within the cleric-run state.
“I’m disappointed, because we have a new president of Iran. He’s supposedly not as aggressive as the previous butcher of Tehran,” Sikorski said.
“But the policy of sending missiles and drones to use against Ukraine and also using similar equipment against Israel seems to be continuing.”
Poland enjoys a long history with Iran, which took in thousands of Polish civilians during World War II.
But as a close US ally, it has joined pressure campaigns against Iran, including agreeing to host a 2019 conference encouraged by then president Donald Trump that pressured Tehran.
Russia hit Red Cross vehicles in east Ukraine, killed 3: Zelensky
- “Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said
- The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian attack on vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Thursday in his country’s east had killed three people.
“Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission in Donetsk region,” Zelensky said.
Artillery shelling killed three Ukrainian citizens working for the ICRC and wounded another two, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets said.
The attack took place in the village of Virolyubivka, a dozen of kilometers away from the front line in Donetsk.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which routinely says it only hits military targets.
The UN Humanitarian mission to Ukraine said 50 workers were killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, including 11 killed in the line of duty.
“Since the beginning of the year, this repeated pattern of attacks appears to have intensified,” the UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement in February.
The bells are back at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
- A convoy of trucks bearing eight restored bells pulled into the huge worksite surrounding the monument Thursday on an island in the Seine River
- They are being blessed in a special ceremony inside the cathedral
PARIS: Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is getting its bells back, just in time for the medieval landmark’s reopening following a devastating 2019 fire.
A convoy of trucks bearing eight restored bells — the heaviest of which weighs more than 4 tons — pulled into the huge worksite surrounding the monument Thursday on an island in the Seine River.
They are being blessed in a special ceremony inside the cathedral before being hoisted to hang in its twin towers for the Dec. 8 reopening to the public.
Cathedral Rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, wearing a hardhat as he prepared to enter the cathedral and bless the bells, called them ‘’a sign that the cathedral will again resonate, and that its voice will be heard again. A sign of the call to prayer, and a sign of coming together.”
The bells will be raised one by one and tested out, but they won’t ring in full until the day of the reopening, said Philippe Jost, overseeing the massive Notre Dame reconstruction project. He called the bells’ arrival ‘’a very beautiful symbol of the cathedral’s rebirth.”
While construction on the cathedral started in the 12th century, the bronze bells damaged in the fire are from the 21st century. They were built according to historical tradition to replace older bells that had become discordant, to mark the monument’s 850th anniversary.
The cathedral’s roof and spire, which collapsed in the fire, have been replaced, and scaffolding is being gradually removed from the site.
