Egypt boycotted Somalia’s OIC conference as a Cold-War proxy battle with Saudi Arabia.

Evidence

Once the Organization of the Islamic Conference announced that the meeting would take place in Mogadishu, Egypt urgently asked the Somali ambassador in Cairo, Ahmed Kaisey, to go home and counsel his government against hosting the conference, because Egypt was concerned that “reactionary” governments like Saudi Arabia assisted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency were scheming to malign Arab progressive forces as un-Islamic. … Despite the many assurances the Somali government gave to Egypt, Nasser’s government and its associates boycotted the conference. … The conference’s success was a coup for the country and the government. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 858

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Cold War Arab politics and the Saudi-Egypt Yemen proxy war themes; relevant to Somalia’s positioning between Egypt and Saudi blocs before its 1969 military coup.