The Minister of Somaliland, Suleiman Ali, has positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).
“I have tested positive for the coronavirus after I and other ministries went to a testing lab in the city Las Anod,” he said in a news conference.
Somaliland is a breakaway region of African Somalia.
Ali’s test result comes amid concerns of a second wave of coronavirus infections.
The minister who was on a peace and mediation tour in Sool area said he was feeling okay, adding that he would go into isolation and continue discharging his duties.
He warned that coronavirus was still a risk and that people should follow guidelines put in place to prevent its spread.
He said over the past few weeks, the region is reporting a rising number of pandemic infections, fearing the outbreak of the second wave in Somaliland.
Somaliland is in dispute with the neighbouring semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland over the Sanaag and Sool areas, some of whose inhabitants owe their allegiance to Puntland.
In April, Khalif Mumin, justice minister of Hirshabelle province died of coronavirus in a hospital in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia.
A self-declared state, Somaliland lies in northwestern Somalia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden.
According to the US-based Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Somalia has so far reported 3,389 infections with 98 deaths. As many as 2,791 have also recovered.
