Somalia Information, Telecommunication and Transportation Minister Abdullahi Elmoge Hersi was denied entry to Somaliland, a self-declared republic in Somalia on Friday, local media reports.
According to the report, Elmoge along with Somali-Ethiopian officials were heading to Jigjiga to attend the yearly communities celebrations hosted in the city, but he was denied his entry to Somaliland to travel with the officials by car into Ethiopia.
Horn of Africa Newspaper from Hargeisa reported that the Ethiopian officials were allowed entry to carry on their travel, but Elmoge was forced to wait a private airplane to take him straight to Jigjiga.
Somalia’s Federal Government and Somaliland did not comment on the issue.
Recently, there have been a passport dispute between Mogadishu and Hargeisa, after Somaliland refused to allow entry for the banned Somali passport.
Local Air travel between the capital Mogadishu and Berbera, was grounded for days, after air carriers canceled their flights due to the row.
Somaliland has not its own passport, since it is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia, and uses the formerly Somali passport, which was officially banned in 2011 by the Transitional Federal Government.
Somaliland has yet to accept the new biometric passport of Somalia.