Somalia returns Ethiopian aircraft as port issue intensifies

Somalia said no to a plane carrying Ethiopian officials to Somaliland, making the ongoing disagreement between the countries even worse.

The person in charge of giving out information in Somalia said to the BBC that the plane was not allowed to be in the country’s sky.

The Ethiopian leaders were in Somaliland to talk about an agreement, and this has caused a big argument.

Somalia thinks that Somaliland belongs to it.

The deal, signed on 1 January, would let Somaliland rent out one of its ports to Ethiopia. In return, Somaliland would get a share in Ethiopian Airlines and might be recognized as its own independent country.

Somalia is really mad about the deal and says it’s an aggressive act.

On Wednesday, the Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) said that flight ETH8273 did not follow the international rules. Flights should get permission from the countries they fly over, but this flight did not.

It tried to land at the airport in Hargeisa, which is in Somaliland.

The SCAA said that normal flights between the two countries are still happening, even after the incident.

The Ethiopian government has not said anything yet, but the leader of Ethiopian Airlines said the plane had come back to the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.

Somaliland used to be protected by Britain. It separated from Somalia in 1991 and now it looks like a country. They have elections, police, and their own money.

No country has accepted or approved this.

Somalia told the Ethiopian plane to leave its airspace, to show that Somaliland is not its own country.

During the argument between Somalia and Ethiopia, the US and the African Union supported Somalia’s land and asked everyone to calm down.