Somaliland President: We seceded from Somalia in 1901

Bihi:” We seceded from Somalia in 1901.”

Hargeisa (PP News Desk) — In speech marking the thirty-second anniversary of the unilateral secession President Muse Bihi Abdi of Somaliland Administration said that “we withdrew from the collapsed union with Somalia in 1901”, 90 years before the May 18, 1991 conference held in Burao.

Bihi’s speech contradicted his speech ten days ago for the Elders’ Council and the House of Representatives in which he called for talks to resolve the Laascaanood conflict. “The Laascaanood war will go on and let men lose their lives as long as Puntland forces are in Sool” said Bihi.

The President of the Somaliland administration delivered a speech laden with factual inaccuracies. “The Laascaanood war resembles the 1988 civil war in the sense that 90% of Somali Air Force pilots who bombed Hargeisa belong to Puntland” said Bihi. In February he claimed that “the Federal Republic of Somaliland attacked us”, a speech that alerted many people to his habit of political malapropism.

The International Community urged Bihi to withdraw his troops from Sool and conduct elections. The Laascaanood conflict, which bagan on 6 February 2023, is the longest intra-clan conflict in Somalia since 1991.

© Puntland Post, 2023