Garowe (Commentary) — In Hargeisa, Mohamud Hashi, the chairman of Kaah, a political party, claimed that President Hassan Sheikh had launched a war against the “Somaliland Administration.” This claim is as absurd as the claim by the Somaliland Administration in 2023 that the secessionist forces were fighting Al-Shabaab in Laascaanood. When that baseless accusation failed to stick, the former Somaliland President, Muse Bihi Abdi, insisted on a two-state solution as a precondition for a ceasefire. These two baseless claims caused the death of more than 2,000 civilians in Laascaanood, the displacement of 400,000 people, the destruction of houses, hospitals and schools. It was then that Muse Bihi claimed that “peace was in his hand.”
Hashi, a British-Somali citizen, levelled a similar accusation against the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, who not long ago proposed the resumption of talks with the secessionist administration. In 2023, the Federal Government of Somalia did not challenge the two false claims used by the Somaliland Administration to justify the indiscriminate shelling of Laascaanood.
Hashi congratulated Puntland “for not being a part of the war the Federal Government of Somalia is waging against us.” Only in Somalia does a political lie lead to protracted conflict. Puntland was never at war with the secessionist administration. In 2023, the President of Puntland State of Somalia Said Abdullahi Deni clearly said that clans of Puntland had mobilised to take part in defending Laascaanood. The Darod religious leaders declined to issue a fatwa against the secessionist administration. “We believe that some Harti politicians had a role in the conflict by claiming to serve the Somaliland Administration. We took responsibility for the conflict and see our position as nuanced. But from now on, if secessionist forces attack our territories, the council will issue a fatwa justifying self-defence,” said a senior Harti religious leader.
During the conflict in Laascaanood, Abune Mathias, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, urged “Somali brothers and sisters to stop the bloodshed and resolve differences through negotiation.” The Somaliland Administration rejected mediation by the Government of Ethiopia.
Harti Allied forces captured more than 300 soldiers of the Somaliland Administration forces. During the conflict, some of the detainees, such as Faisal Botan, were shamelessly broadcasting on social media platforms the indiscriminate shelling of Laascaanood. Harti Allied forces respected international norms governing the rights of prisoners of war. Last year, the Federal Government of Somalia facilitated the release of twenty-five of the detainees who were transported to Hargeisa via Mogadishu.. In 1991, when the Somali National Movement captured Berbera and Hargeisa, it massacred former soldiers of the Somali Government and put some of them on trial in Hargeisa.
Hashi believes that a Majeerteen is a foreigner in Laascaanood and in any part of Somalia he views as the ex-British Somaliland, and yet he implied the President of Puntland State, Said Abdullahi Deni, and the people of Puntland State of Somalia share his disinformation-based sentiments. Hashi should understand the price of demagoguery. Harti Allied forces did not resort to mass executions of detainees who were shelling Laascaanood on the orders of the secessionist administration. Harti Allied forces may interpret his demagoguery as a call to a mutual jihad between Dir and Darod.