Against the political isolation of Djibouti

EDITORIAL 

Djibouti and Somalia are two sisterly countries. Somalia stood by the people of Djibouti during their struggle for independence.

The late Djibouti President  Hassan Gouled Aptidon never got tired of his effort to help Somalis reconcile. In 1991, when all other countries where coming to terms with and beginning to understand what came to be known as state failure, Djibouti organised a reconciliation conference for Somali political stakeholders. What is noteworthy about the succour of Djibouti is the realisation among participants of the conference that, for Somalia to become a democratic and peaceful country, politicians must commit themselves to peacemaking and regular communication no matter what political differences they have.

Ismaïl Omar Guelleh: President of Djibouti

It was a timely lesson in a political education for political leaders who did not prepare themselves for post-dictatorship Somalia. In 2000 Djibouti organised another reconciliation conference that become a springboard for reconstituting the Somali state. A decade after the second reconciliation conference Djibouti sent its troops to Somalia as peacekeepers.

It is unfathomably bizarre to see the Federal Government of Somalia buying into the strategy to exclude Djibouti from the Horn of Africa Economic Integration initiative proposed by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Dr Abiy Ahmed. It is not a carefully discussed policy of Somalia to consider Djibouti as the odd one out even in this unrealistic initiative. It a non-African policy aimed at punishing Djibouti for expanding its circle of friends. It is equally deplorable to see how indifferent Somali opposition parties are to the political opportunism of Federal Government leaders, who behaviours are best exemplified by the Somali saying dameeri dhaan raacday ( the donkey accompanied the water caravan ) about unthinking support and a desire to put other countries’ interest above the national interest.

The support for the agenda to politically isolate Djibouti is an initiative with which Somalis would not like to be associated.

© Puntland Post Monthly , 2020