Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi has announced that the Ethiopian embassy, currently situated within the presidential palace, will be relocated to its previous site, which is now vacant. This decision comes in response to significant public outcry over the embassy’s presence in such a sensitive location.

“The Ethiopian embassy does not occupy its designated land; its presence within the presidential palace is untenable. We are committed to ensuring that it promptly relocates to its previously designated site, which is now vacant,” Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi said in an interview with state TV.

“The Somali people’s reaction to the location of the Ethiopian embassy is justified. We will take swift action to ensure that it relocates to a new site outside the presidential palace in the near future,” he added.

These remarks follow Fiqi’s recent statement claiming that Ethiopia constructed an embassy within the presidential compound following its 2006 invasion of Somalia, a move reportedly authorized by the government of then-President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. This occurred as Ahmed’s administration entered Mogadishu that same year, accompanied by Ethiopian military forces.