The Somali government has confirmed it has resolved a rare public dispute between its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, an incident that exposed coordination challenges within the country’s diplomatic service and drew widespread public attention.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ali Omar, popularly known as Ali Balcad, said the matter has since been conclusively addressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The matter has been resolved. The Foreign Affairs Ministry assigned an advisory committee composed of former ambassadors to look into the issue. Both ambassadors were summoned and met with the committee, which then issued recommendations,” Balcad said during an interview on the Mizan Podcast aired by Dawan Media.
According to Balcad, the ministry established an advisory committee composed of former ambassadors to review the issue independently.
Both the ambassador to Kenya and the ambassador to Tanzania were summoned and appeared before the committee.
The Kenya–Tanzania Embassy Clash
This disagreement emerged in September last year after Somalia’s embassy in Tanzania issued an official statement criticising a visit by Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya to Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Tanzania mission described the trip as a violation of Somalia’s diplomatic regulations and an encroachment on its jurisdiction.
“The embassy in Tanzania proves that the Congo DRC is responsible for the interest of the government and the people, the trip that was said to be led by the Kenyan Ambassador and Somali businessmen who went to Kinshasa, even though the embassy did not share the information about his trip and their objective which is beyond the law of diplomacy and that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” read the statement from Somali Embassy – Tanzania.
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In response, Somalia’s embassy in Kenya defended the visit, stating that the engagement in Kinshasa was aimed at strengthening trade relations and advancing the interests of Somali entrepreneurs operating in the region.
This public exchange between the two diplomatic missions surprised many Somalis, including foreign policy observers, who noted that such disagreements are traditionally handled through internal diplomatic channels rather than public statements.
Somalia Minister Addresses the Feud
The minister described the incident as unfortunate but said it had provided important lessons for Somalia’s diplomatic service.
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He expressed confidence that similar disputes would be avoided going forward.
“It was unfortunate that the mistake happened, but we learned from it. We hope it will not happen again,” he said.
Balcad acknowledged existing gaps in training and internal directives within the diplomatic corps, noting that these shortcomings contributed to the public nature of the disagreement.
He added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is implementing corrective measures to improve coordination, clarify mandates, and strengthen internal communication across Somalia’s foreign missions to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.
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