In a press conference he held at his office, the Somalia Minister for Information directly blamed the United Arab Emirates for encouraging insurrection and use of violence re-igniting fresh tensions between the two countries.
Minister Osman Dubbe responded angrily to a statement the UAE released decrying excessive use of force during the Friday clashes between the interim Somalia government and protesters supporting the Union of Presidential Candidates who previously declared non-recognition of a government whose mandated term expired. The opposition, as a result, demanded that they had no confidence in another attempt to revive an electoral process led by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo as they blamed him for its failure in the first place.