Poor understanding of history fuels the secession conflict in Northern Somalia
Mogadishu (PP Editorial) —Northern Somalia is peering into the abyss of secession war. It is a war that, if it erupts, was awakened by the ghosts of history, mainly the British Empire legacy. Hargeisa cites the history of colonial borders left behind by Britain. Those borders between what was known as Somalilands (British Somaliland and the Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian administration) ceased to exist on 1 July 1960 when the Republic of Somalia was formed after the union of ex-British Somaliland and Trust Territory of Somaliland.
Somalis in ex-British Somaliland had different identities in addition to being British subjects. Some of them were classed as clans protected by the British Empire, some were non-protected clans (e.g., Dhulbahante), some had their cousins in the Trust Territory of Somalia, separated only by a border e.g., Dubbays sub-clan of Warsangeli clan that signed an jurisdiction-based protection agreement with the British Empire.
In 1960 Ali Garad Jamad, an influential northern politician, agreed to co-sign the declaration of independence for the ex-British Somaliland. The declaration stated the Protectorate Agreement with Somali tribes would “terminate” on 26 June 1960. Ali Garad Jama did not belong to a “tribe” that signed Protectorate Agreement with the British Empire, and yet he agreed to sign the historical document to expedite the independence of the North that was threatened by Emperor Hailse Sellasie’s wish to have the ex-British Somaliland annexed to “Imperial Ethiopia”. Independence for the North was hammered out in May 1960, during the Somaliland Constitutional Conference to ensure the North united with the South by 1 July 1960.
There were no political parties in the North similar to the Somali National League in the South because the Protectorate Agreement barred clans from agitating for independence. In 1954 when Britain let Ethiopia annex Haud and Reserve Area in violation of the Protectorate Agreement. Only Micheal Mariano, a prominent Northern lawyer and politician, campaigned to challenge the British decision to betray Somali clans. British policies boosted political advanagates of the South to shape the new Republic after the Union. It was not in the interest of the British Government to allow the aspiring Northern politicians to form political parties that could look after Somali interests and prevent the implementation of secret agreements that the British Empire had signed with Abyssinia at the expense of Somalis.
It is a hallmark of historical misunderstanding to argue that borders that ceased to exist in 1960 can have the same force of applicability to sovereignty as the borders that never ceased to exist, for example the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, or border between Somalia and Kenya. Successive Security Council Resolutions have affirmed the territorial and political unity of Somalia. This resolution obliges Somaliland Administration leaders to refrain from actions aimed at depriving Somalis of their political identity based on United Somalia.
In his speech on the Lasanod conflict two weeks ago President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud urged people of “Lasanod to become united”. He hardly made use of his constitutional powers to remind Somaliland leaders that no Somali can be forced to claim that there is such a thing as the “Republic of Somaliland” in the Federal Republic of Somalia. In 2021 Somaliland Administration forcibly displaced more than 1600 Somalis in Lasanod under the pretext that ”they are foreigners”. It was the first time in the post-1991 Somalia history that forced displacement was categorized as a crime against humanity.
The secession claim of Somaliland Administration is based on the unilateral declaration of 1991 and the 2001 unilateral referendum held in parts of Northern Somalia. Neither outcome has legal validity. Why is the International Community turning a blind eye to the intransigence of Somaliland Administration? Britain supports the security forces of Somaliland, a policy that pushes the North to the edge of a civil war. Lasanod has federal representation in the bicameral legislature based in Mogadishu. Under the federal political arrangements Lasanod is a part and parcel of Puntland. Somalia’s International Partners seem to have ignored all those political and legal facts to be indifferent to a conflict that, if not stopped, can have wider repercussions in the Horn of Africa. The Federal Government of Somalia, on its part, must not mince words about the protection of Somali citizens from secessionist militias invoking a non-existent legal precedent about colonial borders. Somaliland Administration is using development and security assistance from Britain and other countries to wage a secession war in Somalia. Secessionists’ poor understanding of the colonial legacy and key donors’ indifference fuel the conflict in Lasanod.
© Puntland Post, 2023
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