Somalia accuses UAE of encouraging unrest

Somalia on Sunday accused the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of violating international law by belittling Somalia's government as "interim" and seeking to sow violence.

A Saturday UAE statement on recent clashes in the country also violates bilateral fellowship, Osman Dubbe, Somalia’s information minister, told a press conference in the capital Mogadishu.

"The UAE statement is inconsistent with international diplomacy, brotherly relations between the two countries, and Arab culture," said Dubbe.

"The United Arab Emirates wants Somalia to be like Yemen and Libya and wants to create in Somalia displacement, violence, and backwardness, and that is something the Somali people are wary of," he added.

Commenting on recent clashes between Somali government forces and opposition groups, the UAE statement accused Somalia of using excessive force against civilians and called its government an “interim government.”

Separately, Somalia accused opposition presidential candidates led by former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of pursuing “illegality” in the guise of peaceful protest.

"Presidential candidates chose to circumnavigate the process in order to pursue a path of illegality and armed insurrection disguised as a peaceful demonstration guaranteed under our constitution," said a Somali Foreign Ministry statement, also warning unnamed foreign actors against making “misleading” statements that at times “appear to be supporting insurrection.”