Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud made a landmark visit on Friday to a provincial capital claimed by the breakaway region of Somaliland, according to AFP.
The visit will mark the first such trip by a sitting Somali head of state in more than four decades.
The visit to Las Anod, administrative capital of the Sool region, came at a crucial time as the diplomatic tensions in the Horn of Africa are increasing following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
During the trip, Mohamud attended the inauguration of the president of the newly established Northeast State, which in August became Somalia’s sixth federal member state.
Somalia represents a federation of semi‑autonomous states, several of which maintain tense relations with the central government in Mogadishu.
The newly formed Northeast State comprises the regions of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn—territories that Somaliland asserts as integral to its borders.
Somaliland took over Las Anod in 2007, but it had to withdraw in 2023 after deadly clashes with Somali government forces and pro‑Mogadishu militias.
The Somali President’s office described the visit as a “symbol of strengthening the unity and efforts of the federal government to enforce the territorial unity of the Somali country and its people.”
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