MOGADISHU, Somalia — The Somali government has confirmed it has resolved a rare public dispute between its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, an incident that exposed coordination gaps within the country’s diplomatic service and drew unusual public attention.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Omar, popularly known as Ali Balcad, said the matter was conclusively addressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following internal consultations.
“The matter has been resolved. The Foreign Affairs Ministry assigned an advisory committee composed of former ambassadors to look into the issue,” Balcad said during an interview on the Mizan Podcast aired by Dawan Media. “Both ambassadors were summoned and met with the committee, which then issued recommendations.”
According to the minister, the committee reviewed the dispute independently and submitted guidance aimed at restoring coherence within Somalia’s diplomatic missions abroad.
The disagreement emerged in September last year after Somalia’s embassy in Tanzania publicly criticised a visit by Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Tanzania mission said the trip violated diplomatic regulations and encroached on its jurisdiction.
In a strongly worded statement, the Somali Embassy in Tanzania claimed the visit had been conducted without proper notification and was “beyond the law of diplomacy and that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Somalia’s embassy in Kenya responded by defending the trip, saying the engagement in Kinshasa was intended to strengthen trade relations and promote the interests of Somali businesspeople operating in the region.
The public exchange between the two missions surprised observers, as inter-mission disagreements are typically handled through internal diplomatic channels rather than official statements.
Balcad described the episode as unfortunate but said it had provided valuable lessons for Somalia’s foreign service.
“It was unfortunate that the mistake happened, but we learned from it. We hope it will not happen again,” he said.
He acknowledged shortcomings in training, internal directives, and coordination within the diplomatic corps, noting that these gaps contributed to the public nature of the disagreement.
The minister said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is now implementing corrective measures to improve coordination, clarify mandates, and strengthen internal communication across Somalia’s foreign missions to prevent similar incidents in the future.
