Deployment of more militias in Lasanod will not end targeted assassinations

[Deeq A.]

Abdirisaq Khalif, Somaliland Parliamentary Speaker, has yet to speak up against militias killing and maiming citizens in Lasanod

Lasanod (Editorial ) — Shortly after the assassination of a politician in Lasanod earlier this week, people took to the streets to express dislike for the rule of militias in the payroll of Somaliland administration.

Since 2021 unidentified gunmen killed regional electoral chair, two district councillors, two militias members, and wounded at least seven persons associated with the regional administration. Somaliland government began to rely on different militias to the disappointment of core militias in West Lasanod whose leverage has been gradually weakening. Abdirisaq Khalif, Somaliland parliamentary speaker associated with one group of militias, refused to visit Lasanod after the relatives of the slain politician alleged that local militias “are behind the spate of assassinations”.

Instead, Saleebaan Ali Kore, the gadfly Information Minister arrived in Lasanod. Mr Kore is now based in West Lasanod, an area known as the peaceful part of the district — meaning less assassinations take place there; a militia leader lives in West Lasanod. All staff working for Somaliland administration relocated to West Lasanod for fear of being targeted in other parts of the district.

In 2021 more than 1700 Somalis were forcibly displaced from Lasanod after they had been falsely accused of masterminding targeted assassinations. Somaliland administration banks on local militias predominantly based in West Lasanod. The more locals perceive the militias as a backbone of the secessionist administration the more local politicians, councillors and judges remain vulnerable to targeted assassinations. The reign of warlordism is drawing to an end in Lasanod.

Somaliland administration is torn between acting on warlords’ recommendations or accepting that relying on local militias and their warlord commanders makes Lasanod more uninhabitable.

Militia leaders responsible for the killing and maiming citizens will be held accountable for the crimes against people who are legally represented in Mogadishu-based political institutions at federal level and in Puntland at sub-federal level.

Somalia is sovereign country. If Somaliland forces and their allied militias continue to kill citizens for expressing their right to belong to United Somalia, any support for the Hargeisa-based administration amounts to aiding and abetting the destruction of the Somali state. The International Community should not be sitting on the fence about how Somaliland administration is enforcing its illegal claim to have unilaterally seceded from Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2022

The post Deployment of more militias in Lasanod will not end targeted assassinations appeared first on Puntland Post.