Somali Secessionists Still Invoke Customary Law for Secession Claims

[Deeq A.]

Somali secessionists defend the primacy of customary laws underlying protectorate agreements signed between some Somali clans and the British Empire, as opposed to international law, which is the foundation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia

President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (aka Cirro) of the Somaliland Administration called for peace talks without addressing the core argument on which the Somaliland Administration justified indiscriminate shelling of Laascaanood in 2023. He rejects the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

Laascaanood (PP Editorial) — Two years ago today, in 2023, the Laascaanood conflict entered a new phase when Harti Allied forces overran secessionist forces under the banner of the Somaliland Administration Army. Only when Goja’adde barracks, on the outskirts of Laascaanood, fell was the conflict re-characterised by the Federal Government of Somalia as inter-clan conflict between Dir and Darod under the current power-sharing federal system.

It was the longest recorded conflict in Somalia since 1991. It lasted six months and eight days. The Somaliland secessionist administration was forced to change its conflict narrative twice. First, it falsely claimed its forces were fighting Al-Shabaab in Laascaanood. When the international community refused to accept this disinformation, Muse Bihi, the former Somaliland President, rejected UN Security Council calls to withdraw his forces from the outskirts of Laascaanood. Bihi instead advanced a two-state solution as a precondition for ceasefire.

He claimed that Laascaanood was not part of the Federal Republic of Somalia. In February 2023, the former Somaliland Administration Foreign Minister claimed that Somaliland “is a buffer zone for Ethiopia”.

The Federal Government of Somalia called for a ceasefire but never refuted two claims bearing directly on national security: (1) the false allegation by the Somali secessionist administration that Al-Shabaab was based in Laascaanood and (2) the assertion that Somaliland acted as a buffer zone for Ethiopia.

The conflict could have been addressed within the federal framework of the national government, but the incumbent administration and the bicameral legislature chose to appease the secessionists, whose forces indiscriminately shelled Laascaanood, killing more than 1,000 civilians, displacing 350,000 people, and destroying hospitals, schools, houses and markets.

The well-known humanitarian worker Edna Adan Ismail, later awarded the Templeton Prize in May that year, praised the indiscriminate shelling of Laascaanood by Somaliland Administration forces. “We will rebuild Laascaanood after we have destroyed it!” Edna brazenly declared.

The Harti Allied forces captured more than 300 Somaliland Administration soldiers. It is noteworthy that the rights of Somaliland detainees had been fully protected under international law. The King of the Darod clan, Burhaan, urged urgent de-escalation and mutual respect for the political and territorial rights of both Dir and Darod antagonists. Unfortunately, Bihi rejected this peace overture and instead formed clan militias in Togdheer, Sool and Sanaag in an attempt to prolong the conflict in the countryside.

In January 2024, Bihi signed a maritime Memorandum of Understanding with Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, in an attempt to grant the landlocked country a naval base in the Federal Republic of Somalia despite rejecting the sovereignty of Somalia.

Bihi argued that previous agreements, including the December 2023 agreement sponsored by Djibouti, entitled the Somaliland Administration to sign a maritime MoU with Ethiopia on the grounds of economic development.

A New Federal Member State in Northern Somalia

Today, Laascaanood is the administrative capital of North East State, a unionist federal member state in northern Somalia. 

Earlier this year, the Federal Government of Somalia secretly sponsored talks between Somaliland Administration business representatives and business leaders of Sool, Sanaag, Cayn and Khaatumo Administration, a precursor to the North East State. The talks aimed to resume trade between unionist and secessionist constituencies. In 2025, the Federal Government of Somalia facilitated the humanitarian release of 25 Somaliland prisoners of war, captured in Laascaanood in August 2023.

In 2021, Somaliland Administration forces forcibly displaced more than 1,700 Somali citizens from Southwest State, falsely claiming the Somali IDPs were foreigners in Laascaanood.

They misinterpreted an article on freedom of movement inserted in the agreement signed  in 2020 by representatives from the Somali Federal Government and Somaliland Administration.

President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (aka Cirro) of the Somaliland Administration called for peace talks without addressing the core argument on which the Somaliland Administration justified indiscriminate shelling of Laascaanood in 2023. He rejects the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

When the conflict erupted in Laascaanood in 2023, President Cirro, a Finnish citizen, initially called for a claimed that “foreign elements are in involved in Laascaanood conflict” only to later change his stance and support the shelling of Laascaanood by Somaliland forces. “I support the Somaliland Army in the war in Laascaanood” he said.

Somali secessionists are well represented in federal institutions and yet they continue to insist on the absurd claim that the colonial borders of pre-independence Somalia override the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia. They defend the primacy of customary laws underlying protectorate agreements signed between some Somali clans and the British Empire, as opposed to international law, which is the foundation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

President Cirro no longer invokes colonial borders, but he repeats the claim that the United States of America “can unilaterally recognise Somaliland”. This is as absurd as his predecessor’s assertion that, in a proposed exchange for a naval base, Ethiopia “will recognise Somaliland Administration as an independent country.”

© Puntland Post, 2025

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