German Ambassador Meets Somaliland, Somalia Officials in Same Week

Somaliland President H.E. Muse Bihi Abdi met in his office, yesterday, the Germany Ambassador to Kenya, Seychelles, and Somalia, Ms. Annett Gunther.

During the meeting, President Bihi and the German Ambassador discussed a wide range of issues pertaining to Somaliland-German relationship, German’s humanitarian and development aid, Somaliland’s parliamentary and local council elections and the regional security in general.

This is Ms. Gunther’s first visit to Somaliland since September, 2018, when she became the Head of German Mission in Nairobi.

Ms. Annett becomes the first western ambassador to visit Laasgeel historic site and the popular ancient rock paintings, although she has not visited the important German Projects in Somaliland such as projects in Road Development (GIZ), Hargeisa Water Expansion, Disaster preparedness, WASH and development of MCH health centers. It is unclear yet why she has not paid a visit to these projects and implementing organizations which the Germany funds with Millions of Euros.

Earlier on, EU highlevel delegation visited Somaliland Capital and met with government, political parties, parliament and Election commission. They pressured all sides to make compromises and the election challenges.

This visit comes after the German ambassador to East Africa Nations met several Somalia officials in Nairobi and Garowe. On April 3^rd she first met in Nairobi the Foreign Minister of Federal Government of Somalia, Mr Ahmed Isse Awad. They discussed ongoing efforts to improve and strengthen relations between the neighbours (Somalia-Somaliland and Somalia-Kenya), as written in the following tweet.

The German Ambassador and the Somalia FM also talked about the German’s continuous humanitarian, development and security projects those are currently ongoing in the war-torn, Horn of Africa nation, Somalia.

On April 7, the German Ambassador visited the Puntland State of Somalia, where she met with the State President Mr. Abdallah Saeed Deni and his Vice President Mr. Ahmed Osman Karash and discussed the wide range of issues including drought resilience activities and Somaliland-Puntland border conflict.

In Garowe, She witnessed the opening of a German-funded Centre for Capacity Building on Mother & Child Health Care.

German’s new policy on Africa takes in the entire spectrum of foreign policy tools to prevent crises and instability, as detailed in the Germany-in-Africa website. The new guidelines dictate instruments such as diplomacy, crisis prevention, stabilization, development cooperation, and economic development are closely dovetailed. A particular focus is on early crisis detection and preventive action: from police training to promoting democracy and mediation – stable state and social structures are strengthened by means of targeted measures that complement each other.