Egypt-Somalia security coordination under way amid regional concerns over Cairo's growing influence in Horn of Africa

High-level security coordination in recent weeks has been under way between Egypt and Somalia on the deployment of Egyptian troops as part of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), amid regional concerns over Cairo's mounting strategic and military influence in the Horn of Africa.

"An expanded meeting was recently held in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, between an Egyptian security delegation that involved high-ranking army and intelligence officers and their Somali counterparts to agree on the logistics of planned joint military drills and manoeuvres," a senior Egyptian security official told The New Arab on condition of anonymity for not being authorised to talk to the media.

'Uneasy' over influence

Cairo and Mogadishu signed a defence agreement in August, amidst an ongoing dispute both countries have with Ethiopia. The two nations agreed to deploy 5,000 Egyptian troops to be stationed in Somali regions bordering Ethiopia as part of an African peacekeeping force in Somalia after its mandate ends in December this year, nearly half of some 11,000 military personnel the mission will have.  

"The security agreement entails that Egypt provides military equipment and assigns officers to monitor army command centres in the Hiran region along the Ethiopian border," said the senior Egyptian official, without elaborating further.  

The terms of the defence deal between Egypt and Somalia also entail an exchange of intelligence information, a move expected to enable Egypt to carry out intelligence activities in the region and communicate with rebel groups inside Ethiopia.

The recent Cairo-Mogadishu rapprochement has alarmed several of Somalia's neighbours.

Last week, Kenya-based The East African reported that the states contributing troops to the peacekeeping mission in Somalia, including Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Djibouti, had reportedly been "uneasy" about Egypt's rising power in the Horn of Africa being a "new-found ally" to Mogadishu.

The report further suggested that the inclusion of Egyptian troops in AMISOM at the expense of Ethiopian forces, which have been part of the peacekeeping mission since 2014, is "a strategic win to Egypt."

"The objections facing Egypt have been incited by Ethiopia and its allies to limit our influence in countries and restrict the deployment of further Egyptian troops in the Horn of Africa for fear of an inevitable military confrontation triggered by the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam [GERD]," the Egyptian official source argued.

For over a decade, Ethiopia and Egypt have been at odds over the construction of the dam on the Blue Nile, impacting the water shares of Egypt and Sudan.

Tensions have been growing between Somalia and Ethiopia earlier this year when Addis Ababa signed a memorandum of understanding with the self-declared republic of Somaliland to lease part of its coastline for a military base in return for recognising the region's independence.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but this has not been recognised by the international community.