A Civil War in Northern Somalia Grabs American Policymakers’ Attention

**Will President Joe Biden review his one-Somalia policy?**

Mogadishu (PP Comment) — In December 2022 the United States was preparing for military exercise in Berbera Port with a contingent of Somaliland administration forces. The Federal Government of Somalia turned a blind eye to what amounted to a violation of the national sovereignty by a superpower using one-Somalia policy as a justification pursue its strategic interests in a politically volatile country still grappling with the impact of state collapse thirty two years ago.

**President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud gave the US government the green light to misapply its one-Somalia policy for security partnership with the secessionist administration of Somaliland.**

The Executive Order that the White House issued yesterday stated that “Somalia continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” “The acts of violence committed against Somali citizens” continues. Secessionist forces of Somaliland administration shelled Laascaanood and caused massive displacement. The US State Department called on Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi to withdraw his troops on the outskirts of Laascaanood. Bihi ignored all calls for de-escalation partly because the security partnership with Somaliland that Biden administration formulated has been abandoned following the Laascaanood uprising and the subsequent civil war in Northern Somalia.

**President Bihi feels let down after the US shelved a security partnership with Somaliland administration.**

Somaliland administration interpreted the security partnership as a vindication of its unilateral secession. The US government did not only undermine the sovereignty of Somalia represented by the Federal Government of Somalia but it also took sides in a territorial dispute between Somaliland and Puntland. The rules-based world order has dual meaning — one for powerful countries, and another for less powerful countries over whose sovereignty the United States runs roughshod.

**President Said Abdullahi Deni of Puntland State of Somalia was not briefed about the security partnership USA was planning to forge with Somaliland administration.**

If the assessment of the current security situation in Somalia referred to in the Executive Order predates the shelved security partnership, then one wonders why Washington adopted a policy that contradicts the rationale to deal with the “threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.

The unintended consequences of one-Somalia policy that the United States invokes when dealing sub-national entities masks a contradiction at the heart of its contribution to the state-building initiatives in Somalia. It is overdue for rectification.

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