Mogadishu (PP Editorial) — At the inauguration of Galmudug State President Liban Ahmed Hassan in Dhuusamareeb on 5 November 2026, invited dignitaries witnessed the third peaceful transfer of power in the federal member state, which marked its 20th anniversary this year.
What almost stole the show was an indirect exchange between Salah Ahmed Jama, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Abdullahi Ali Hersi, the Second Deputy Speaker of the Upper House. Salah said that Northerners had come to Mogadishu as one entity to unite with the South and establish the Somali Republic. Abdullahi acknowledged the historical fact of the union but emphasised its legal foundations, upon which the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Somalia rests.
Why did the Somaliland administration, a secessionist entity whose territory is represented in federal institutions by Salah and other MPs and senators, persist in shelling Laascaanood during the six-month conflict in 2023?
The Somaliland administration presented a two-state solution as a precondition for reaching a peace agreement. The Harti clan bore the brunt of a conflict driven by a secessionist agenda that sought to deprive unionist Somalis of their citizenship rights in the Federal Republic of Somalia.
The secessionist administration claimed that it was restoring the former colonial boundary between British Somaliland and the Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian administration. The Federal Government of Somalia did not denounce the Somaliland administration’s claim that its territory served as a buffer zone for Ethiopia. Somali secessionists followed up that questionable claim by signing a memorandum of understanding in 2024 that envisaged leasing a Somali coastal district to Ethiopia.
The Somali secessionists’ invocation of colonial borders raises fundamental questions about the interpretation of Article 4(b) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which establishes the principle of “Respect of borders existing on achievement of independence.”
The African Union recognises the principle of respecting international borders inherited at independence. Eritrea and South Sudan, which became independent from Ethiopia and Sudan in 1993 and 2011 respectively, achieved independence following internationally recognised processes involving negotiated arrangements and referendums. Their paths to statehood therefore differed significantly from the unilateral declaration of independence made by the Somaliland administration in 1991.
The historical arguments advanced by Somali secessionists must be examined alongside the legal foundations of Somali sovereignty and the African Union’s commitment to territorial integrity. These considerations expose significant weaknesses in the argument for dividing Somalia into two sovereign states.
© Puntland Post, 2026