25/12/06 (B375) GAROW ONLINE / Le gouvernement djiboutien expulse les diplomates somalilandais et ferme les bureaux de l’ambassade à Djibouti. (Info lecteur)

Somaliland:
Djibouti Expels Somaliland Diplomat (2006-12-22)

The
Djiboutian government has formally given a Somaliland representative and his
staff 72 hours to leave the country, according to the Hargeisa-based Jamhuuriya
daily.

Ambassador
Rashid Yasin and his staff were told to vacate their offices
after being informed that the government of Djibouti had cut off diplomatic

relations with neighboring Somaliland.

The move
came after the Djiboutian government’s anger at a Somaliland
decision last week to use the port of Berbera independently for livestock

trade with the Arabian Gulf, wrote Jamhuuriya.

Both Ambassador
Rashid and Abdullahi Mohamed Du’ale, Somaliland’s foreign
minister, have declined to comment on the expulsion.

Somaliland
is composed of the northwestern regions of Somalia whose leaders
unilaterally declared independence from the rest of the country in 1991
after longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre’s government collapsed.

Even though
no single government officially recognizes Somaliland, the
breakaway sub-state has representatives in some of the countries in the
region.

It’s the
second time Djibouti closed down Somaliland’s diplomatic offices
since 2000.

Source
Garowe Online