I could write a book in response to the Somalia ambassador's oped about why the US should "support Somalia's territorial integrity," but here are a few points: 1) his argument, like many similar ones, claims that Somalia currently has territorial integrity, & that recognizing Somaliland would break that integrity. But Somalia doesn't have territorial integrity. Shabaab still controls parts of the country, Somaliland hasn't been functionally a part of Somalia for decades, & Puntland & Jubaland defy Mogadishu at every opportunity. Arguments premised on a fiction are irretrievably broken. 2) The US-Somalia partnership hasn't "bolstered regional stability." The region is as unstable as it's been for decades.

Given the potentially historic significance of the Ethiopia-Somaliland MoU yesterday, it's worth remembering a few facts: 1) it is Somalilanders who have separated themselves from Somalia for 30 years, not a shadowy international conspiracy to dismember Somalia. 2) Mogadishu has no practical authority in Somaliland. The fact that it can currently only issue statements demonstrates yet again that it is not meaningfully sovereign over SL, and hasn't been for decades (though it can potentially cause trouble in other ways).

The @BloombergAfrica newsletter is worth reading, but I'm flummoxed by this recent paragraph: "Yet the US and its corporations have been largely absent from Africa since the turn of the century, aside from a few high profile aid programs such as... Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative. Meanwhile, Chinese firms have been building roads, dams and power plants. As Ivor Ichikowitz...put it, the US’s role has been 'embarrassingly insignificant' in terms of actual investment."

A pleasure to collaborate with @SMGebru to host last week @HailuKebede_, co-founder of the Tigray opposition party Salsay Weyane Tigray. My major takeaways, though there are many more 👇 Hailu gave a historical sketch that helps explains the conflict today. He says the struggle is fundamentally between federalists and centralists, a tension that has existed for a century. That, and not nationalism or ethnicity, is the primary driver of the conflict.

This would be funny if the Chinese govt's xenophobia wasn't so dangerous: "Internet users have also accused the illustrations of being 'pro-United States,' because they show several children wearing clothes patterned with stars and stripes and in the colors of the American flag" "Nationalist influencers quickly placed the blame on 'Western cultural infiltration,' alleging -- without giving evidence -- that illustrators had been covertly working for 'foreign forces,' especially the United States, to corrupt the souls of innocent Chinese school children."