ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — A top US diplomat on Monday stressed his country’s support for Somalia’s transitional government, whose control has been hanging by a thread in the face of a fierce Islamist insurgency.
“The US government has always been clear that it is important to support the TFG (transitional federal government),” US Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew said during a visit to neighbouring Ethiopia.
“We are engaged in activities consistent with what the countries of the region are involved in.”
Last week, a US official said the United States was giving Somalia’s embattled government urgent supplies of weapons and ammunition to fight off the insurgents.
Islamists launched a nationwide offensive against the administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on May 7.
The internationally-backed Sharif has been holed up in his presidential quarters, protected by African Union peacekeepers as his forces were unable to reassert their authority on the capital.
In 2006, Ethiopia, a key US ally in the region, invaded Somalia to remove an Islamist rebellion that had taken control of large swathes of the country.
When it pulled out earlier this year, having failed to stabilise the country, Ethiopia warned it could return at any time should hardliners threaten to take control.
Lew had earlier met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and said he raised US concerns over Ethiopia’s 2005 elections.
“We noted that the 2005 elections were good but expressed that we were troubled at the reduction in space for open public debate …,” he said.
The European Union and other observers said the 2005 elections fell short of international standards, and around 200 people died in violence that erupted after the opposition accused Meles’ party of rigging the ballot.
Several members of the Ethiopian opposition are now in exile or in prison, including Birtukan Mideksa, the head of an opposition coalition.
“We have expressed very strong views that the election next year should be free and fair,” Lew said. “I raised concerns about Birtukan and said the case should be resolved quickly and finally.”
Lew also said the United States was concerned over restrictions Ethiopia has placed on aid groups.
Ethiopia adopted a law early this year stating any local group drawing more than 10 percent of its funding from abroad would be classified as foreign and subjected to tight government control.
(170125) -- MOGADISHU, Jan. 25, 2017 (Xinhua) -- Local people walk past the site of a suicide attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, Jan. 25, 2017. The death toll in Wednesday's attack by Al-Shabaab militants on a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu has risen to 15 while 15 other were injured, a senior official said. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse) (zy) (Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)
By Paul Goldsmith And Abdi Umar
Nairobi, Jun 30 2009 — Naturally, threats to bring down glassy skyscrapers and demands that Kenya withdraw security forces patrolling the border evoke public alarm.
Sometimes an ostensibly negative and emotionally charged development can flip over into a moment of analytic clarity.
The Al Shabaab surge in Mogadishu may be such a moment, at least we hope so, for those charged with formulating Kenya’s foreign policy.
Post-Barre Somalia has been a complicated crucible of ethnicity, ideology, dire material conditions, and predatorial behaviours geared to micro-to-macro political economies of war.
Add the reverberations of global jihad to this mix and the 18-year old conflict reduces to a clutch of familiar cliches: failed state, clan, warlord, Wahhabi networks, Islamist insurgents, terrorist safe haven, humanitarian crisis, battered civilians and IDPs.
This narrative begs to differ.
Nicholas Naseem Taleb traces what he labels the “narrative fallacy” to the human proclivity for reducing complex phenomena to simple patterns. The narrative fallacy is a function of “our vulnerability to over-interpretation and our predilection for compact stories over raw truths.”
Narratives are powerful but their margin of fallacy increases apace with the volume of information. This dovetails with, as two scholars of Africa have noted, the role of information as more crucial in disordered societies.
In respect to this role, there is information that can be used to falsify the conventional story.
Is Somalia a disordered society, generating an overflow of turbulence roiling what was already a disorderly region; or is it a case of forces within the disorderly region sustaining the disorder following out of the collapse of the Somali state.
Both hypotheses have merit. More significant is the fact that, for the insurgents, external interference is the problem.
Never mind the obvious contradictions, this is the source of the sabre-rattling rhetoric accompanying the latest Al Shabaab surge.
Threats fill the air as another in the series of governments cobbled together outside the country’s borders bites the dust.
Cheeky demands about pulling back your troops raise the pulse and resurrect bad memories. But it helps if we disagggregate the raw truths and fallacies at work.
The first falsehood is that Somalia is an ‘ignored’ crisis. On the contrary, hardly a month passes by without some high level discussions on Somalia in the United Nations, the Contact Group on Somalia, the IGADD meetings, the African Union, and the Arab League. Under the AU banner, foreign troops are embedded inside Somalia, supported, at arms length, by a phalanx of international organisations.
Over the last week, meetings have been held between the Foreign Minister of Egypt and Eritrea, Yemen has called upon a meeting with the Gulf Arabic states, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been making speeches, the United States has made statements, and held a meeting of the TFG and Somaliland in Washington.
The British ambassador to Ethiopia has made a trip to Hargeisa.
The Chinese, Indian, German, French, Russian, American, and British navies trawl the sea, a permanent American military mission observes from bases in Djibouti and Mombasa, NATO planes patrol along the coast, and unseen hands finance an “insurgency,” while the UN organises myriad peace conferences.
State-funded British, American, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, and Russian (they’re back) broadcasting services beam out high quality signals offering their take on the “Somali crisis” to the millions of nomads.
Somalia turns a whole load of assumptions on their head, and is home to the most sustained piece of double speak on the planet today.
Not ignored, but rather, wilful ignorance characterises this crisis where actors and their proxies do their best to conceal their real motives, no side wants to display its hand, while once again brute force is displacing alternative methods for resolving the unsatisfactory stalemate.
The spokesperson for the African Union forces in Mogadishu repeatedly talks about the need to support the “legitimate government” of Somalia.
The Kenyan Foreign Minister speaks about the urgent need to defend the “legitimate government” of Somalia. The so-called insurgents repeatedly say they not recognise any government in Somalia, and consider the AU forces a brutal external occupying force. What is the reality, and what is “legitimacy” in this context?
The Somalia government claims to be democratically elected, based on supervised selections held at international conventions paid for by the usual four or five Western donors, plus the occasional token input by an Arab regime in the capitals of Kenya, Ethiopia or Djibouti.
At the end of these lengthy proceedings, one is declared president and a retinue shares out ministries, others are named Commissioners for various provinces, or head nonexistent departments.
The real problem begins when the president decides or is induced to go home and rule like other presidents. Unfortunately, the new president ends up becoming irrelevant to the realities unfolding on the ground zero of Mogadishu, Hargeisa and Baidoa. This class of political actors tends to be out of touch with the reality back home — and as we are now witnessing, quick to desert.
The Ministers are content to earn ‘salaries’ for governing from a distance, while demanding an army, police, and now navy paid for by others.
Sixteen governments later, the wonder is that the “international community” and the African Union are so eager to fall into this trap. Now Kenya is being put on the spot, voices in government and the press advocating intervention in circumstances where battle-hardened Ethiopia failed.
Somalia’s Al Shabaab insurgents control entire provinces, all the way from Lamu on the Kenyan border to Mandera. The insurgents have been our neighbours for over a year, controlling every town, and imposing government on the people. None except their salaried and uniformed personnel are allowed to carry arms. The beleaguered “government,” in contrast, has never extended its authority beyond the battered blocks around the heavily fortified Villa Somalia where the internationally recognised president depends on 4,000 AU troops to ensure his physical survival.
It seemed that the IGAD-Western alliance had finally got it right.
But the former Islamic Courts Union chair, Ahmed Sheikh Sharif, has let everyone down. Somali’s are now saying it’s the Abdullahi Yusuf government without Abdullahi Yusuf.
Brute force is once again displacing other methods for resolving the unsatisfactory stalemate. Unfortunately, the MoU conceding to Kenya rights to part of the Somalia’s offshore zone enraged even TFG supporters–implicating the Kibaki part in the larger conspiracy.
Another more positive fact deserves emphasis: through a long and costly process of trial and error Kenya actually solved its Somali problem. The scrawny alley cat is proving to be more formidable than the lion that was once the Somali state and of course each party has to do what it has to do.
Moreover, each player in this game has taken on voluntary a role in the region’s conflicts, and military intervention is not in Kenya’s docket.
At different times, the Ugandan middle classes, the rich Tanzanians, the royalist Ethiopians, the fleeing Rwandese, the elite of Southern Sudan have all left their legacy and capital in Nairobi.
It has benefited further by being a cool place next to all the fighting in Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, revolutionary Ethiopia, an oasis for the aid fraternity where business could be carried out, where money could be banked, where logistics could be organised.
By keeping out of the fray, Kenya was able to play host to aid organisations working in venues as far as Congo.
By keeping out of the fray, by talking to all sides in combat all the time, Kenya could host the northern and Southern Sudanese in their talks.
By being neutral and keeping out of the fray Kenyan could attract all the warlords and sundry and host them in their inconclusive talks without itself becoming a factor in the talks.
True, the Harakat al Shabaab extremists are scary and the situation is pregnant with unknown unknowns. The military option, in this instance, is lose-lose, and the prospects of war is generating considerable angst within Kenya’s Somali community.
For a number of weeks now, a creeping campaign demonising Somalis living in Kenya, caring little for facts, threatens to negate several decades of progress.
After four decades of being treated as a fifth column, Kenyan Somalis have a right to be afraid–very afraid, and have tried to keep under the radar as they prayed that the ill wind would blow itself out.
Curiously, like the TFG president, the alley cat has got the tongues of North Eastern Province MPs and civil society, despite their obvious interest in these affairs. It took Yusuf Haji, the Kenyan Defence Minister, to set the narrative straight.
In his interview with Harun Maruf of the VoA on June 24, he said Kenya had its own large Muslim population and did not feel threatened by the rise or non-rise of a Muslim state on its borders; for while it would defend its own territory, it had no interest in deciding regimes for its neighbours, but was willing to live and let live.
Hassan Aweis Dahir responded in a similar tone.
It is Kenya’s interest to continue the demilitarisation of its northern region and refuse to be drawn into fighting for one group or another. Kenya’s strength is soft power: the Foreign Minister should mobilise the country’s Muslim ulama to sort out the problem with Quranic Aya and Hadith.
Reported by Paul Goldsmith and Abdi Umar. Paul Goldsmith is a researcher based in Meru, while Abdi Umar is a consultant on pastoralist issues in the Horn of Africa.
Hargeisa, 29 June 2009 (Somalilandcurrent)— Ethiopian Airlines has officially delegated Noble Travel Agency to carry out their flight bookings in Somaliland. The agency will have exclusive access to Ethiopian Airlines 1.95 million passenger database and cliets would be able to make bookings with them as well as Ethiopian Airlines affiliated carriers.
Since the suicide attacks in Somaliland in October last year, the Ethiopian Airline’s office was closed and its flights has been suspended due to security concerns. A number of times, there were reports suggesting that the carrier might start resuming its flights via Berbera airport – however, it was not to be.
Speaking to Somalilandpress, the manager of Noble Travel Agency, Mr Abdiqafar Mohamoud Isse said the agency was established in 2006 and has been growing ever since. After the Ethiopian airlines suspended its operations in Somaliland, they have been seeking other alternatives in order to continue their business in the country.
In early March of this year, the Ethiopian carrier invited three traveling agencies from Somaliland to it’s head office in Addis Ababa for contracting bid. Noble Travel Agency was selected as the official winner on the 27th of April – the other two bidders were Olympic Travel Agency and Hargeisa National Travel & Tourism Agency (HNTTA). Mr Abdiqafar, said his agency was selected because of their extensive experience in the field and connections with other carriers such as Xoriyo, Zuhura, Cosob and Daallo airlines.
Ethiopian Airlines has not officially annouced when it will resume it’s flights to Somaliland cities but Addis-Hargeisa travelers can make bookings with Noble Travel Agency, they will be able to connect them with any of the following carriers Air Ethiopia, Xorriyo, Zuhura and Daallo Airlines. Noble Travel plans to lauch their online services soon.
Hargeisa, Jun 29, 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) — World refugee day took place in Somaliland on June 20th at the Ethiopian refugee center. The celebration proceedings were opened by Somaliland Vice Minister of Resettlement, Mr Abdilhamid Garad who said, “I am happy to be with you on this occasion, this is not the first time I participate in these festivities, I have taken part in your celebrations on two previous occasions and I am hoping it will be as interesting and wonderful as the last.”
Ministers, officials from UNHCR and other international NGOs as well as ordinary citizens enjoyed songs, dances and cuisines by Ethiopia’s various ethnic groups who reside in Somaliland.
The head of UNHCR, Mr Abdoulaye Barry, gave a long speech in which he talked among other things about what the UNHCR does to help the refugees. He also revealed that the UNHCR has appealed to other countries to accept the refugees in Somalialnd in their own countries.
Certificates were awarded to number of winners from competitions in tennis and basketball games.
A Large number of refugees from Ethiopia live in Somaliland mainly from the Oromo ethnic group. Many of these groups bring with them rich art from Ethiopia’s diverse culture including hand-crafted, handwoven baskets with vibrant colors of rust, hunter green, cobalt blue, and golden yellow. The Harari women are among the best known for their common-looking grass baskets.
Children receive a meal at a school through the World Food Programme (WFP) in the drought-hit Baligubadle village near Hargeisa, the capital city of Somaliland, in this handout picture provided by The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on March 15, 2017.
Somaliland: press Release Urgent Emergency Humanitarian Assistant
The Vice President
To: All International Agancies And Organizations
Since The Year Of 2007. The “Dayr” and “Gu” rains in Somaliland were below normal rainfall (Deyr 07/08, Gu 08, and Deyr 08/09) and this year’s “Gu” was poor.
As a result, poor pasture, scarcity of water, food and waakened human animal health were experienced. Reports coming from pastoralists are predicting a serious, but looming famine.
According to fewnsnet. The cumulative effects of drought have resulted in a decline in reproduction rates and re-stocking for all species. Moreover, due to poor livestock body conditions, the number of saleable animals in local markets has been declining. It is predicted that the export figures for the current year could drop further. The drought also affects a significant number of urban households whose income and food source are strongly linked to livestock marketing and trade.
The livelihoods of pastoralists are further aggravated by severe food shortages caused by global food inflation and by continuing locust invasions to vegetations where short rains were reported during the “Gu” season of this year.
All the six regions of Somaliland are affected by the drought, and 40% of the estimated populations of 3.5 Millin of Somaliland are affected. That equals to 1.4 million people.
Given the worsening livelihood situation, as well as the deteriorating human and animal health as a result of food shortages, water and lack of fodder for animals, predictions for serious humanitarian catastrophe seem to be imminent that require to be averted.
The government of Somaliland, therefore, appeals to the international community for urgent emergency livelihood assistance to avert severe food shortages and hunger. Moreover, assistance and support to urgent water trucking, rehabilitation of boreholes as well as rehabilitation and distilling of boreholes and dams, and the supplies of necessary medications for affected human and livestock populations will be paramount to avoid break-outs of disease epidemics. Nutritional support to the weak and sick will be also necessary.
The situation is unusual and, therefore, requires quick, rapid, and unusual responses from the international community to deliver humanitarian assistance and supplies.
H.E. Ahmed Yusuf Yassin
Vice President of the Republic of Somaliland and
Chairperson of the National Disaster Management Committee.
Somali’s Ambassador to Kenya Muhamad Ali Nur has said the situation in his country is “very severe” and has consequently appealed for help from the international community.
Speaking during an interview with Kenya’s privately-owned KTN TV at the Somali embassy in the capital, Nairobi, Nur said: “The situation is very severe. We have humanitarian crisis. People are dying daily. People are being displaced, going out of the cities.
“Al-Shabab group who are fighting against the government are not peace-loving people. The are fighting the government. They don’t want peace. The government always welcomed Somali parties and groups to participate in the peace process. Al-Shabab actually – they are the ones who are really indiscriminately killing people. They are the ones responsible for the displacement of people and that is why we have appealed to the international community to enable countries to come and support us. We need nation building” he said in the interview.
“The hospitals are very overwhelmed with injured people, kids especially, young women who are really injured by the shelling of these Al-Shabab groups who are shelling indiscriminately to civilian people”. he added.
Responding to a question as to whether a military intervention was now necessary, he remained evasive saying, “I think apart from that, Somalia needs capacity building. The Somali forces need to be helped. We have now AMISOM [AU Mission to Somalia] troops who are helping peacekeeping forces in Somalia, but on top of that I think the international community need to reassess, re-evaluate, re-help, help again, the Somali forces who will be able to bring peace and stability to Somalia”.
He was asked whether the recent US arms shipment would be of any help. His response:
“I think it will. I think the transitional federal government is a legitimate government and the US is a friendly country who came to help of the plea that we have asked to help us. Well, as we all know that Al-Shabab have been assisted by other countries who do not want peace. For example, Al-Shabab, have been getting assistance by weapons and ammunition from Eritrea, and that is a well-known fact. I think we welcome the assistance we are receiving from the USA.”
He said his government had warned both Kenya and Ethiopia to beef up security along their borders with Somalia. “Some of the border sides in Somalia, for example in Kenya and Ethiopia, we have some Al-Shabab forces around that area. And we have told the Kenya government and the Ethiopian governments to beef up the borders so that foreign fighters or the Al-Shabab fighters will not enter into Kenya and destabilize Kenya”.
Washington, 28 June 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) — The Problems plaguing Somalia show no sign of abating in the near future.
It seems that every other day there has been a Bomb Explosion in Mogadishu killing dozens of people or requests made by the Transitional Government for Assistance have been falling on Deaf Ears.
Is there any hope for the Horn of Africa?
For Almost 20 years Somalia has been in a State of Anarchy. Two Previous Attempts by the United Nations to restore a functioning Government have failed and currently a third attempt is not promising.
Piracy has been a Major Concern amongst the International Community as the Gulf of Aden is a Chokepoint amongst the Shipping Lanes of the World.
Islamic Militants who have been linked to both Al-Qaida and Eritrea have been battling Government Forces in and around the Capital Mogadishu. And in recent day days in a High Profile Incident 4 thieves suffered Cross Amputation for their Crimes.
As a result of the latest fighting 250 people have reportedly been killed and 170,000 have been displaced. The US Government has seen fit to send 10 tons of Arms to support the Somali Government.
The Crisis in Somalia seems to be getting worse.
In the near future a Conference will be held in Washington, DC regarding the Future of Somalia.
What is interesting is for the First Time Somaliland will be asked to attend. However they will not attend due to the fact that they have been invited as a Province of Somalia not as an Independent State which they claim to be.
In another Interesting Fact Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti were not invited to take part in the Washington Conference.
For Several Years now the Somaliland Region has been attempting to have the Independent Community state that they are a Country. In 1998 the Somali Government tried to prevent the region from seceding by Force but was unsuccessful.
After a Meeting with US Officals at the Embassy in Nairobi the Somaliland leadership decided not to attend because their concerns would not be on the Agenda. That is a Legitimate Concern.
The Leaders in Hargeysa don’t want to be lumped into a Solution that may end up being a detriment to Somaliland. After all the Region will be announcing which companies were able to purchase Gas and Oil Exploration contracts this fall. The region does not have a problem with Piracy either.
In the Long Run the US may be making an Error by not increasing contacts with Hargeysa. On this note the Obama Administration deserves some praise. Unlike Previous Administrations they have been talking to Somaliland.
Our early history we were rural society and moving towards where rain falls after a period we immediately change urban society although some remain their stage we changes our camels to cars and so on, as we passing these social change steps we suddenly stopped un-expected stage that some pessimistic believe this phase is hard to pass easily, but if we ask ourselves can our society ready to make change or reached maturity period or is there factors of social change all these question I believe we can’t find reliable answers because the fundamental of our society or lifestyle broke early and attachment needs more orienting steps.
Orienting social change needs attention mass media but unfortunately our mass media didn’t interest these main issues I mean changing our society civilized people productive society and make the society busy for developing issues and also change their way of thinking and my knowledge our society they are victimized all changes regardless to our faith, culture, and main example is the Diaspora in western countries according to a survey that I made personal in our media I didn’t find any program that orient social change I think there is no awareness or importance of this vital issue although some radio whose opened recently claim that they operate peace and development issues but I think the measure has been lost, there measurement is based on senseless so we need these standards to change immediately.
The human institution or non-governmental organizations that operate inside Somalia also didn’t focus social evolution although they claim that their function is human aid but the main thing that you can aid for human being is to change and betterment for their life and I believe that mass media and humanitarian organizations can play a vital role for this important program and adore and realize his value because if we didn’t care our society it’s clear that they will remain this hard stage for long time.
How we can change our society?
There is several steps we can orient our society to lead progressive social change and these steps are:-
Build community based on their behavior respect in each other.
Change the attitude, (not leaving our value) behavior I mean assault behavior we adapted, political system.
Orienting accountability for the all national resource and public sectors such as roads, airport, and universities and so on.
Solutions for social problems determining the core of the problem.
Understanding well practicing democracy and free speeches and mutual respect in all fields.
Because progressive social change involves making significant changes on a systemic level, conflict with those who hold power is often inevitable. The power that social change organizations bring to the table is their ability to organize, to educate and to mobilize.
Unless take these process we can’t beseech he edge of the social change or the sense of change so I adjure our society to bring social feeling about evolution process and also adjure for this stage all the influential individuals to focus for their ability and feel responsibility about their society.
Finally I believe if these processes take carefully we became progressive social and also we can stop thinking useless issue.
By Saaid Omar Ahmed Dhuhulow
Khartoum-Sudan
email qaroof22@hotmail.com tell +249923374457
Hargeisa, 27 June 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) – Somaliland scored 4.5 in the numerical index rating, with 1 representing the most respect and 7 the least respect; ranked Somaliland as the 144th world’s political and civil rights-respecting country out of 208 countries (193 recognized and 15 yet to be recognized countries); which further indicated that Somaliland has more political rights and civil liberties, than 64 countries, including China, Russia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia according to the Washington based Freedom House Organization’s 2007.
Somaliland peace-making and democratization, and the relatively peaceful neighboring Puntland State of Somalia are enough to approve of the hypothesis of that building peace through people not for the people is more successful than parachuting Somali government established in Nairobi, Impeghatti, Djibouti, Arta, Cairo, Sana, etc.
Thanks to traditional elders, the homegrown efforts not only manage the peace and security in Somaliland but also the judicial functions as a prevention measure. According to the Hargeisa based Research and Training Center (RTC), 65% of Somaliland settlements rely on community elders in their peace, security and justice management. In addition, two third of the cases reached at the prosecution offices withdrawn their cases to civil mediation; which accumulates the traditional elders’ peace, security, and justice management burden to 77.5%.
Unexpectedly, the supposed appreciation and reward from other Somalis and the international community to the Somaliland is yet to be materialized. Instead, all the fifteen international community’s Somali reconciliation attempts and the self-pro-claimed Somali efforts of setting Somali governments, including internationally unrecognized late General Aideed’s government, the Union of Islamic Courts defeated by the Ethiopian Military intervention with the US logistic support, and the Al-shabab Al-Mujahedeen Islamist Movement, which currently controlled most of Southern Somalia emphasized to establish a Mogadishu based (suppose to be based) Somali governments; as if Somalia is in Mogadishu; while Mogadishu is in Somalia.
“Contrary to the western belief, Somaliland ’s successful multi-party elections have proved that the African tradition, Islamic faith and modern democracy are compatible“
Al-shabab Al-Mujahedeen publically declare that they masterminded the three suicidal explosions in Hargeisa on October, 2008 as retributive action against the pro-western and pro-Ethiopian Somaliland is schemer to revenge from the extradition of Anti-Ethiopia ONLF members or supporters from Somaliland to Ethiopia , since Ethiopia is common enemy for ONLF and Al-shabab.
Contrary to the expectation, the international community graded Somaliland down to UN Security Level Four, which could discourage development and investment. In the gatherings, Somalilanders asked questions to each other- whether such security downgrading decision is rewarding to Al-shabab, and inviting to carry our more attacks or not? On September 11, 2001; three planes were crashed into buildings in New York, just couple of yards away from the United Nations headquarter, and no one down graded the USA security level; why Somaliland? This will be a witness for Islamist hardliner’s claim of that the Western World is not looking a democracy but they are using as proxy hand to intervene other’s affairs.
The currently widespread legitimate debate among Somalilanders is- ‘what did they benefited from supporting the Western World in the war against the international terrorist’, Djibouti in the war against Eritrea, Ethiopia in the war against ONLF, and the Red Sea facing countries in the war against the sea pirate.
The homegrown Somaliland peace and democracy needs to be rewarded, at least by offering temporary recognition to both Somaliland and Somalia with condition of attending negotiation to agree, either as two separate states or into one Somalia within that period, as a carrot and stick policy.
Any other attempt is unproductive, if not counterproductive, and could create a conducive environment for Al-shabab Al-Mujahedeen’s potential conquer of all Somali territories, including Djibouti, and the Somali regions of Ethiopia and Kenya.
Somaliland the home of 3.5 million persons, one third of the population of the collapsed Somalia , is a former British colony in the Horn of Africa that merged in 1960 with the Italian colony of Somalia to form the independent republic of Somalia .
When Somalia disintegrated into fiefdoms controlled by iron-fisted warlords in the early 1990s, Somaliland broke away and set up its own administrational institutions, including executive, legislative and judicial bodies, and currency.
Somalilanders tried to build a new state through shirweyne (conference in Somali) under the acacia trees that people in this country can understand and identify with, instead of the extravagance five-star hotels in the neighboring or concerned African and Arab cities, where many failing reconciliations held.
In this basically classless society, the right to choose one’s leaders freely and hold them accountable was practiced for centuries or perhaps for millenniums. The traditional elders controlled political system took the major decisions by consensus and selected government leaders through an electoral college consisting members representing clans during the decade of 1991-2000. Since then, the challenge has been how to transfer the clan-based system to a modern democratic system.
Opportunely, a gradual democratization process took place, where 2001 constitutional referendum, municipal elections, presidential, and House of Representatives election where held in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005, respectively; and the second term presidential and municipal elections are planned September and December 2009, respectively.
Seventy-six International observers from 15 countries including South Africa , Britain, Canada , New Zealand , the United States , Zimbabwe , Sweden , Finland and other EU members reported in their overall assessment that besides lack of enough resources and higher illiteracy of the voters, free and fair elections have been conducted in Somaliland .
Ahmed Mohamed Diriye (Toorno),
ahmedmdiriye@yahoo.com,
Hargeisa
Las Anod, June 27, 2009 (Somalilandcurrent) — The Central Bank of Somaliland (CBS) opened its first branch in Las Anod, the regional capital of Sool on Friday. The branch will introduce Somaliland currency [Somaliland Shilling] to the region and will carry out all monetary policies, financial research, note issuance and anti-money laundering as well as general services of a commercial bank and exchange.
Las anod historically used Somali Shilling but since coming under Somaliland’s control in November 2007, the Somaliland government has built a number of institutions.
Currently, there are no foreign exchange or commercial banks in the city.
Central Bank of Somaliland governor Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed inaugurated the new branch also present for the opening ceremony were the governor of Sool, Mr Ali Mahamoud (Ali Sandule), traditional leader, Mr Adan Ali Duale, Mayor of Las Anod, Mr Anbashe Aw-Dahir and a large crowd from the public.
The Central Bank of Somaliland was established in 1994 after a bloody war with neighbouring Somalia – the bank has a governor, general director and five members of which three members are prominent private businessmen in its board of directors.
The Somaliland currency consists of the following denominations 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 Shilling. Foreign exchange branches are usually located in regional airports such as Egal International Airport [Hargeisa], Borama airport and so on.
