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Mogadishu (Commentary) — Shortly after the visit of Africom senior officers to Hargeisa two weeks ago, the government of Somaliland administration touted the visit as a security cooperation between “the Republic of Somaliland and the United States of America.” The US Africa Command communique highlighted the meeting as “a partnership with Somaliland, as with Federal Member States, consistent with the U. S. “Single Somalia policy, and in line with Somalia’s constitution”.
Khadar Hussein Abdi, the Secretary General of Waddani, challenged the Somaliland government’s portrayal of the meeting as a bilateral security cooperation. “This press release demonstrates the US’s clear stance on the Somalia issue. Yet, our presidency’s pres release reveals a completely altered meeting. Only those who choose to be misinformed take the alternative truth from our government in this day and age of information technology” Khadar tweeted.
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Waddani accepts the policy that Somaliland is a part and parcel of Somalia under the international law. Those opposing two views on the outcome of the unilateral secession of Somaliland complicates future talks with Mogadishu. Waddani looks upon secession as aspiration whereas Kulmiye regards it as reality.
“The Security Council resolutions refer to the territorial and political unity of Somalia. Waddani is right to question the status of Somaliland propounded by Somaliland government. We are not a sovereign nation” said a Waddani MP in Hargeisa. Somalia’s International Partners see Somaliland as an administration on par with other Somali Federal Member States. The Federal Government of Somalia under President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud could stick with the policy that he adopted in 2016 when he had granted Puntland the federal jurisdiction of territories currently occupied by Somaliland militias. This policy is based on the 1998 Charter on which Puntland State of Somalia was founded. Such a federal government policy will infuriate President Muse Bihi Abdi of Somaliland Administration.
The US Somalia policy places Somaliland within the federal dispensation. That Waddani and Kulmiye differ on the outcome of 1991 unilateral secession points to a new phase in Northern Somalia politics.
A. A. Mohamud
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