Oslo(Mogadishu24)-President of the Federal Government of Somalia, Hassan Sh. Mohamud confirmed that International Partners are involved in mediating Ethiopia and Somalia to end the conflict between them and expressed hope for resolving the issue.

The diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries worsened, following the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between the breakaway Republic of Somaliland and Ethiopia which was granting 20 kilometers of sea access to Ethiopia. Somalia refuted the move firmly, recalled its Ambassador to Addis Ababa and described the MoU as an aggression and a violation against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.

Diplomatic efforts aimed at easing the tension between the two countries did not work and the conflict is now half a year since it started on January 1st this year.

But President Hassan said during Oslo meeting that there were number of International Partners who were involved in mediating Somalia and Ethiopia.

“How can someone who does not recognize you, will help you in peacemaking or peacekeeping, still because of the mandate of the African Union, the Ethiopian troops are there. These are one examples of the challenges and different interests of different actors, so this is a key example that we have, still we are dealing and we are hopeful that his problem will resolved. There are numbers of good International Partners and Institutions who are involved in mediating Somalia and Ethiopia for this particular issue”, Mohamud said.

President’s remarks on this situation comes days after the Ethiopian Ministers were saying that they were going to turn the MoU with Somaliland into reality, and committed to get sea access.

The Ethiopian sides did not comment on President Hassan’s speech of the mediation efforts so far.