Focus on Somaliland (Part 1): huge task awaits new president

[Jacaylbaro]

To get an insight into the challenges awaiting Silaanyo, it is good to take a look at the history of the country.

 

After gaining their independence in 1960 from the British and Italians repectively, north and south Somalia became one. With what the Somalis at the time called the 'spirit of brotherhood' the Democratic Republic of Somalia was born.

 

After almost nine years of civilian rule, things changed in 1969, the Somalia republic fell into the hands of military rule. In a well choreographed coup, General Mohamed Siad Barre took over from the government.

 

Barre banned all political parties and cancelled the multi-party system that resulted to disquiet in the northern part of the country, now Somaliland. In 1981 the Somaliland elite launched the Somali National Movement (SNM) in London, in a bid to fight Barre's regime.

 

Barre retaliated with harsh security measures. Many from the political arena who dominated Somaliland were either killed or arrested while others had to flee the country. By 1988, a full-fledged war broke out between the two wary factions.

 

"They never wanted to hear about Siad Barre. They were so anti-him that it felt as if they wanted him dead." says Abdullahi Ali, a Somali elder who lived in the Somali capital Mogadishu at that time.

 

Hungry for power

Another Somaliland resident says Barre himself called for hostilities as he discriminated against them. "He never considered us as human beings; all he cared about was his power. Barre was the one who made us rebels towards his administration."

 

As a result Barre’s government flexed its military muscle. He destroyed the once vibrant Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa to rubbles; thousands were pronounced dead and some residents crossed the border into the neighbouring Ethiopia as refugees.

 

After a long and protracted warfare, the Somali National Movement (SNM) claimed victory and got the authority to rule Somaliland.

 

In 1991 Barre, the then president of Somalia is overthrown and the region of Somaliland embarked on a mission to be recognised as a sovereign state.

 

Huge task

Somaliland enjoys relative peace compared to the rest of Somalia, but experts say the new president has a lot on his plate. The region faces conflict from a rebel group Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya based in the Gollis Mountains located on the country’s unrecognized eastern border.

 

Its leader Mohammed Said Atom is considered as a thorn in the flesh. He is identified by the United Nations as a main arms supplier to al-Shabaab.

 

The new president will also have to resettle more than 3,500 internally displaced persons living in Hargeisa. Most of them fled to Ethiopia at the height of the conflict between the region and Barre's forces in 1988. Since they came back, they are still not living in a conducive environment.

 

Many Somalilanders say they don’t want to live in the shadow of the past but want international recognition as an independent state.

 

 

Radio Netherlands