After Somalia announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with Kenya, the Somalia National Army (SNA) was deployed to the common border at Mandera.
Mandera County residents reported seeing SNA troops taking strategic positions along the border.
The move forced locals to start leaving their homes in case of danger on Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
On Tuesday midnight Somali Minister for Information Osman Dubbe announced on national TV that his country was cutting diplomatic ties with Kenya.
Somalia Cuts Ties With Kenya
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Mr. Dubbe said Kenya had “constantly interfered” with Somalia’s internal affairs and that Nairobi was violating Somalia’s sovereignty.
His statement read: “Kenya continues meddling in our internal political affairs and it has ignored our previous calls to stop violating our sovereignty,” Somalia’s Information Minister Osman Dubbe announced on state-run SNTV.
“We, therefore, declare that we have cut ties with Kenya over its poor violations on Somalia’s sovereignty. Somalia wants all its diplomats to go back to Mogadishu and Kenyan diplomats have seven days to leave the country.”
This came barely hours after President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted Somaliland President Muse Bihi in Nairobi.