Hiiraan Online

Mogadishu (HOL) – A delegation led by Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre travelled to Egypt for a three-day official visit on Sunday.

The Prime Minister will meet with Egyptian leaders to discuss bilateral cooperation, but his office did not give further details about his schedule. 

At a bilateral meeting in Cairo last July, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud discussed development, red sea security, and regional matters such as the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Following their talks, President Sisi told a joint press conference that he and President Mohamud discussed the dangers of unilateralism. However, Villa Somalia's spokesman rebuffed the statement, clarifying that Egypt and Somalia share no official joint position on building and filling the GERD.

PM Barre's trip comes months after reports first emerged that Egypt - with the financial assistance of the UAE - is recruiting and training thousands of young men for the Somali military in a move that has been likened to the previous administration's clandestine Eritrean training program.

The first group of Somalia's Eritrean-trained troops began returning to Somalia last month and are expected to be mobilized to join the government's ongoing offensive against Al Shabaab.