Dubai: Emirates Post Group and Somalia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which Dubai will act as the hub for mail forwarding, as the strife-torn African nation prepares to resume postal services after a gap of 23 years.

The MoU, facilitated and supervised by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), was signed by Abdullahi E. Hersi, Somali Minister of Information, Posts, Telecommunication and Transports, and Fahd Al Hosani, Acting CEO of Emirates Post Group, at UPU headquarters in Berne, in the presence of UPU Director General Bishar Hussain.

Under the MoU, the two parties have committed to negotiate the details of an agreement that would see Dubai act as a hub for handling mail destined for Somalia. The plan is to enable forwarding of Somalia-bound international mail to Dubai, from where it would be transferred to the office of international mail exchange in Mogadishu, using airlines flying into the Somali capital.