Do the election cost 32 million shilling or dollars?

Obviously foreign politics and dealing with foreign countries isn’t Somaliland strong suite. However Somaliland makes that up in their domestic politics and dealings, seeking broad consensus and inclusive decision making on important matters.

They should advocate for greater democratisation and inclusive decision making in governance on local and regional/state level, rather then try to control or correct the process from central level.

Isn’t this the PM, the Head of Government? What’s wrong with him doing foreign missions restoring the diplomatic ties that Farmaajo seemed to have wrecked. Specially during a crucial phase in which Somalia needs international support in its negotiations with the AU led AMISON force on a new mandate. Or would you rather want AMISOM to expand its mission with a mandate to interfere in Somalia’s internal politics?

It might definitely motivate them. And it will definetly give further leverage to AMISON in their negotiations with Donors and Federal Government.

What’s all the fuzz about, have you even read the document? First of all it’s a communique not an agreement. Second it says nothing else that Kenya and Somalia are intending to discuss a number of subject such as Diplomatic Relations, Livestock, Security, Defense, Education, Agriculture, Blue Economy, etc. And lastly Blue Economy is a container term that also covers Fisheries, Tourism, Maritime logistics, Shipping, Marine Biodiversity, doesn’t mean necessarily Natural resources. The real significant issue that one seems to be ignoring here is that both countries will send back their Ambassadors agains and open their Embassies. And this seems to be a politically mature and sensible thing to do between two neighboring countries.

Many people from those clans did stand up, please do look up about people like aun, Garaad Abdiqani who spoke up against Siyad Barre, Ali Khaliif Galeydh a senior Minister opposing the regime and becoming the most senior political exile, Dr.Mohamed Aden Sheick Health Minister and Parliamentarian convicted for treason and spending years in prison, and who then build the Hargeisa Children’s Hospital that has been named after him. Aden Abdullahi Gabyow former Defence Minister who was jailed and later on led the SPM. And many many others who were Senior Politicians, Military leaders, Artist, Academics, etc opposed him from wll Somali clans. But you need to keep in mind that Somalia was under a military dictatorship in which power was concentrated in the hands of one man, and you will find in each clan people that cheered for him and supported him, and those that opposed him. Somali’s are not bad people, neither are there bad clans but try to look for more facts, listen to different people and what they have witnessed, only then you get a full picture of what happened.

Will ONLF be joining this new alliance?

Somali people every time come up or hope for very negative and destructive outcomes, thinking it will help their cause and that it can’t make things worser and what happens every time, it does get worser.

What made the election for the Chair of Somaliland’s Parliament quite significant is; a) the Sool community is on a path to solidifying its political voice in Somaliland, listen below to the former Parliament Chair’s interview on the political ambitions of the community. b) And second the opposition won the Chairmanship which would enable for the legislative to exercise its role in holding the executive to account and thus improving the check and balances of state power, which into very common in this part of the world. c) And most importantly a majority of MP’s stayed loyal to their party’s and party candidates, which is quite a unicum. d) and lastly Somaliland progressing again in its democratic vibrancy after a decade of political stagnation and corruption where Parliament votes were simply bought off by the Executive and government functioning being without any check and balances. Thanks to the current President, who has proven again to be a champion for the rule of law and proper functioning of the State systems. Even though some are trying to ridicule the political development in Somaliland, you have to give credit where credit is due.

So how do you think a Balkanized greater Horn of Africa would look like? Would it create a equal playing field for all the smaller players, contributing to a power balance and stability without a disturbing power-axis?

Xaaji, weren’t you just cheering for the TDF/TPLF destabilizing Ethiopia? Even IOG fears the spillover effect. DJIBOUTI : IOG fears Tigray war domino effect in Afar regions WWW.AFRICAINTELLIGENCE.COM With the war in Tigray starting to spill over into the Afar region, interethnic tensions have been resurfacing either side of the...

Ethio-Djibouti line remains closed 31 July 2021 By Brook Abdu Ethiopia’s lifeline, the Ethio-Djibouti line, remains closed since Saturday July 24, 2021 with various vehicles and drivers stranded on the route, The Reporter has confirmed. Drivers stranded on the route around Dire Dawa said that they could not move to either side, following a conflict on the borderline between the Afar and Somali regions, where the Ethio-Djibouti route passes through. They said that many vehicles carrying fuel and containers have been parked by the roadside, while they are sleeping either inside the vehicles, outside by the roadside, or some in hotels. Because of the deployment of federal forces, the drivers now hope that the roads would soon be opened allowing transportation along the route. Apart from the road, the railway linking Addis Ababa to Djibouti had also been blocked by protesters who demonstrated against attacks on civilians by Afar opposition forces who are allegedly working with the TPLF. Witnesses from the area said that the raillines were looted and set ablaze by angry protesters. This, the witnesses say, could have damaged the electric line of the USD four billion railway. The Ethiopian government covered 30 percent of the cost for the project, taking the rest from the Chinese Exim Bank. Shortly, Ethio-Djibouti Railway was established in April 2017, based on an agreement signed on December 16, 2016, between Ethiopia and Djibouti, with a capital of USD 500 million. Augmenting the Ethio-Djibouti land line, the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway had reportedly transported a total of 3.45 million tons of import and export commodities and goods over the last three years. The Reporter’s efforts to reach the Railways CEO, Tilahun Sarka, were not fruitful. Transporting almost 85 percent of the country’s import and export trade, the Ethio-Djibouti route is often referred to as the lifeline for the country’s economy. Because of the need to diversify its port services to other neighboring countries, Ethiopia owns 19 percent of shares in the Berbera Port development and it has finalized deals to use the Port of Sudan and Kenya’s Mombasa port. Djibouti has also expanded its Doraleh Port facilities very recently to accommodate the growing demands of the Ethiopian market. Indicating that the port was mainly meant for the market in Ethiopia, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) warned in March 2018 “If trade from Ethiopia dries up, ships will no longer be queuing at sea for their turn to dock at these ports. This is significant because there are two separate situations that threaten the trading relationship between Ethiopia and Djibouti. The first is the brewing political crisis in Ethiopia.” But, if Ethiopia remains stable and continues to grow, its economy was predicted to be able to accommodate all ports around it. Such security situations had repeatedly closed the route, hindering the transportation of goods between Djibouti and Ethiopia. And when the roads would be opened remains unknown. The Reporter’s repeated calls to the administrations in Afar and Somali regions were not replied to.

He does actually explain when subsets of languages are classified as dialects, its determined by the linguistic distance which is measures by vocabulary rather then grammer and pronunciation. Even the Banidiri poem you have posted here consist largely of Somali words, which makes it Somali. The good professor also explains that languages like af-Barawe and those spoken by Mushunguli are related to Kiswahili rather then Somali. That words are pronounced differently or with a different grammer that you don’t understand, doesn’t make it a separate language.

This shows that the conflict in Ethiopia is not isolated and can have a severe impact on the region. For those that are hoping for more chaos and bloodshed, pray for peace of our neighbors or the fire might spread further to our Somali house.