Mogadishu (Editorial) — The Laascaanood conflict has entered its third week. At the UN Security Council session on Somalia today, the Somalia Ambassador to the United Nations Abukar Dahir Osman described the indiscriminate shelling of Laascaanood by Somaliland forces as a crime against humanity. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations said and “the violence in Laascaanood particularly the indiscriminate shelling of civilians”: “We call for an immediate de-escalation of violence, the protection of civilians, an unimpeded humanitarian access, and for tensions to be resolved through dialogue.”
At a time, state-building initiatives in Somalia are shaping up in the South, the North is slowly losing the advantages of three decades of peaceful co-existence. Somaliland Administration is waging a war against people of Laascaanood under the pretext that the district is no longer a part of the politically and territorially united Federal Republic of Somalia. President Muuse Bihi Abdi has been unable to answer the question: Why are your forces shelling Laascaanood? His administration tried to play the terrorism card by labelling Laascaanood residents “terrorists”.
The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Dr Hassan Sheikh Mohamud urged Somaliland leaders to understand the gravity of the situation. “We don’t force the union on you. You have to respect the wishes of the people,” said President Mohamud. In 2013 President Mohamud adopted a new policy in which Somaliland gets direct development assistance on the understanding that the secessionist administration would honour its obligations towards Somali citizens. Somaliland violated its obligations in 2015 when it initially declined to let Somali returnees from Yemen disembark from a boat from Yemen. In 2021 the Somaliland Administration forcibly displaced more than 1600 Somali citizens in Laascaanood on the false grounds that they are not “citizens of Somaliland”.
The rationale for keeping peacekeepers in Somalia is to protect the lives of Somalis and prevent transnational terrorists from posing a threat to the world. Failure to hold perpetrators of indiscriminate shelling accountable will breed impunity in Somalia. As Ambassador Abukar said, the Federal Government of Somalia has an obligation to protect the lives of Somalis. Somaliland forces use artillery to target residential areas, health centres, schools and mosques in Laascaanood. More than 70 civilians have lost their lives in Laascaanood so far.
When Somaliland claims to be a republic and resorts to indiscriminate shelling, it violates UN Security Council resolutions emphasising the political and territorial unity of Somalia. Thirty years ago, southern Somalia saw a large-scale humanitarian intervention triggered by man-made famine. The world has changed since. The impact of the indiscriminate shelling of the district by Somaliland forces is carefully documented. As the former Somalia President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed wrote last week, “the possibility of putting perpetrators on trial for crimes against humanity” should be explored. People in Laascaanood are getting killed and maimed by forces waging a secession war. People of Laascaanood have a right to assert their legal political identity based on united Somalia.
© Puntland Post, 2023
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