SomaliaBilateral Visits:
• Bilateral relations between the two countries witnessed significant progress during the past two years the highlights of which are as follows:
• Between 2014 and 2015, then-President Hassan Sheikh Mohamed visited Egypt four times.
The first was to attend President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi''s inauguration ceremony while the second, in December 2014, had extraordinary outcomes and signaled the start of raising the level of cooperation between the two countries.
The third visit was to participate in the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015 and finally the fourth was to attend the Arab Summit in Cairo.
• On the Egyptian side, then-Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr visited the Somalian capital Mogadishu on March 10th, 2015.
It was the first visit of its kind in 20 years during which the opening of the Egyptian Embassy in Somalia was announced.
And in April 2016, the Embassy succeeded in acquiring a piece of land at a prime location in the capital Mogadishu to build the headquarters.
• In December 2015, Assistant to Foreign Minister for African Affairs Ambassador Mohamed Idris visited Mogadishu to participate in the High-Level Partnership Forum (HLPF) on Somalia.
It was followed by bilateral meetings with senior officials such as, the President and a number of ministers, as well as, military and police officials.
• A large Egyptian delegation, headed by Assistant to Foreign Minister for African Affairs Ambassador Mohamed Idris, made an official visit to Mogadishu and the Somaliland region in April 2016.
It was a most distinguished visit, second only to presidential visits, for the fine effect it left among the Somali people and government.
In addition, the Egyptian delegation received an extraordinary welcome and held many meetings with most Somali officials from President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud to ministers, the Governor of Mogadishu, and the Managing Director of the Port of Berbera.
The success of this visit lay in holding bilateral meetings between specialized bodies in fields such as trade, industry, agriculture, education, and health.
• During 2015 and 2016, the following Somali officials visited Egypt:
President, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Speaker of Parliament, Minister of Defense, Minister of Internal Security, Minister of Finance, Minister of Livestock, Minister of Fisheries, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Education, Minister of Health, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Deputy Minister of Finance, Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Minister of Ports and Marine Transport, Governor of Mogadishu, Police Chief, National Army Chief, and Minister of Civil Aviation.
• The Somali Government appreciates the Egyptian efforts to internationally highlight the Somali issue, which resulted in a UN Security Council visit to Mogadishu in May 2016 during Egypt''s chairmanship of the UN Security Council.Areas of Bilateral Cooperation:
• During 2015 and 2016, Egypt and Somalia signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) in a number of fields such as: health, education, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and trade.
Negotiations are underway on MOUs in the fields of customs, industry, culture, and shipping. There is, also, a great response to the Egyptian Embassy''s efforts to set a shipping lane.
• Egypt is still considered the first destination for the people of Somalia access to education at least until high school. Egyptian university academic scholarships, also, receive considerable attention. The President has, further, agreed to increase the number of university scholarships from 90 to 200 annually.• The Egyptian Ministry of Education has agreed with its Somali counterpart to attain and re-operate two schools namely, 15th of May and Sheikh Hassan Barsane Secondary Schools in Mogadishu. Egypt, also, seeks to re-operate Gamal Abdel Nasser School and dispatch experts to develop educational curricula. It is noteworthy that there is a higher education Egyptian delegation in the Somaliland region composed of 43 instructors.• There is Al-Azhar delegation composed of 16 instructors in the Puntland region.• The Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development offered 61 training scholarship during 2015. And in 2016, the number of workshops reached 23 in various technical and security fields.• The Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding holds workshops and training courses focused on Somalia in the fields of terrorism and strengthening the role of women in the Somali society.Food Assistance:• In 2016, the Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development sent a shipment of food assistance composed of 80 tons of corn flour and 83 tons of wheat flour worth (L.E. 500.000).Business Relations:• Egypt started importing large numbers of livestock the last of which were four deals in 2017.• The Egyptian and Somali Ministries of Agriculture agreed to set up a joint farm in Somalia.
