Somali president tests positive for Covid-19 on UAE trip

UAE’s president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has canceled an in-person meeting with the Somali president at the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi after he received a positive result on a coronavirus test.

News Keydmedia Online
22 June 2022

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia’s newly elected president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has tested positive for COVID-19 while on a two-day state visit to the United Arab Emirates [UAE], sources said.

Mohamud and members of his entourage, including spy chief Mahad Salad, national security advisor Hussein Moalim and chief protocol were forced into days of isolation after being diagnosed with Covid-19.

Villa Somalia did not immediately respond to Keydmedia Online requests for comment on the president’s health situation. The latest reports say Hassan Sheikh is expected to return home soon.

UAE’s president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has canceled an in-person meeting with the Somali president at the presidential palace in Abu Dhabi after he received a positive result on a coronavirus test.

The sources added that Al Nahyan’s face-to-face talks with the Somali President were held by video while at his hotel in Abu Dhabi. It was Mohamud’s first foreign trip to pay to UAE since his May 15 election.

The president’s sickness affected plans to present the Prime Minister-designate Hamza Abdi Barre to the parliament for endorsement. Mohamud faces a daunting task, including the war on Al-Shabaab and the drought.

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