IN ADDIS ABABA, HASSAN SH. MOHAMUD, THE PRESIDENT OF SOMALIA, MEETS WITH ABIY.

President of Somalia, Hassan Sh. Mohamud (left) with prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed (right)

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the president of Somalia, arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, on Wednesday, capping a tour of the region since his election in May.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed met Mohamud at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

The Somali leader was also welcomed "to the land of origins," as Ethiopia frequently refers to its own past discovery of early human fossils on its territory, the PM claimed.

This encounter might portend closer connections between them.

Since winning the election, Mohamud had just not traveled to Ethiopia. People wondered whether the two countries' relations would be affected by this, which raised eyebrows.

During his trip, President Mohamud renewed relations with Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, and Egypt while also addressing some issues that had arisen.

He went to Eritrea, for instance, since there had been a two-year disagreement about the type of training given to candidates for the national army of Somalia who had been sent to Asmara. According to the relatives of the soldiers, they haven't spoken to them since they left for training.

In terms of security and Somalia's position on the use of the Nile, the visit may have an impact on Ethiopia's perception of the two nations' relationship.

Al-Shabaab, a Somali insurgent organization, first overcame Ethiopian defenses in July when it raided a border village on the Ethiopian side. The Ethiopian military rejected the group, but there were still casualties and damage.

The Somali administration had to make it clear that it had not sided with Egypt on the Nile after Mohamud's trip to Egypt in August. Mohamud was cited by the Egyptian presidency as saying that shared natural resources shouldn't be subject to one-sided control.

Ethiopia, the primary source of the Nile's waters, and Egypt and Sudan are at odds over Ethiopia's construction of the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Cairo has demanded a deal on how to control the dam's filling, but Ethiopia has disregarded it, filled it three times, and started producing some electricity.

Although Somalia is not in the Nile Basin, Ethiopia and Egypt have consistently looked to the region for support in their positions. There are business agreements between Somalia and Ethiopia as well.

For instance, Somalia allowed the purchase of miraa (khat) from Ethiopia but forbade the export of the drug from Kenya under Mohamud's predecessor Mohamed Farmaajo. Since then, Mohamud has let Kenyan khat to return to the Somali market.