Somaliland President Chooses Destabilization Over Peacemaking

[Deeq A.]

Bihi uses clan arguments based on Protectorate Agreements to reject the sovereignty of Somalia.

Hargeisa (PP Editorial) — Yesterday, the Somaliland administration government briefed the media on the outcome of a teleconference the ambassadors and deputy ambassadors of several countries had with President Muse Bihi Abdi. Somaliland government accused Puntland State of deploying troops in Laascaanood and that Garoowe aims to demarcate a new clan-based boundaries.

This fallacious argument is as absurd as the other arguments advanced by the secessionist administration to reject the sovereignty of Somalia. Under the federal electoral laws Laascaanood is a Puntland constituency. Puntland is not claiming to be a republic that unilaterally seceded from Somalia nor does it refer to protectorate agreements that the British Empire signed with Somalia clans shortly after the 1884 Berlin Conference. Bihi fails to see the contradiction in claiming that the unilateral referendum of 2001 is the basis for the rights to secede, and the attempt to violently impose a secessionist ideology on a unionist constituency.
Bihi decided to press on with political delusions and declined to choose peacemaking over destabilization. What are the options for the International Community to put persuade Hargeisa to withdraw its troops and respect the consent of people who do not share secession ideology?

Bihi is a threat to inter-clan amity from which the North benefited before Somaliland administration had resorted to aggressive promotion of secession that culminated in the 2021 forced displacement of more than 1500 Somali citizens in Laascaanood. Somaliland forces committed atrocities in Laascaanood, a district whose inhabitants have become internally displaced people after Somaliland administration labelled them terrorists and shelled the district.

Under Bihi Somaliland administration metamorphosed into a politically violent entity that, according to Africa Confidential, scored a “bloody own goal”. The unanimity of the so-called Somaliland parties to support the shelling of Laascaanood by Somaliland forces indicates that Hargeisa pays lip service to governance based on consent. Somaliland is a force of destabilization in the Horn of Africa. Secession does not come about through rejection of existing sovereignty or baseless claims based on post-Independence borders.

© Puntland Post, 2023

The post Somaliland President Chooses Destabilization Over Peacemaking appeared first on Puntland Post.