Dialogue Between Somaliland & Somalia Would Never Be Fruitful

A British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spokeswoman recently said: “We believe that it is for the Federal Government of Somalia and Somaliland to reach agreement on their future together, and that it is for those in the region to take the lead in recognizing the resulting agreement. We continue to encourage both sides to engage in a sustained and structured dialogue.”

I strongly believe that an agreement will never be reached between them since Somalia does not want to recognize Somaliland as an independent country that tried to unite with them in 1960. Somalia forgot that The Act of Union between Somalia and Somaliland was never approved or ratified by the parliament of the Somali Republic which was composed of both countries. That means that they were NOT officially united, and that their union for 31 years was fake. Somaliland didn’t take advantage of that mistake made by the then parliament by utilizing methods to prove their argument.

The main purpose of Somaliland’s outreach to unite with their brothers in the South In 1960 was to bring in the remaining three Somali regions into the fold. That dream of greater Somalia (Somaliwayn) died when Djibouti refused to join the union and the remaining other two were lost to Kenya and Ethiopia. 

Siyad Barre’s Somali Democratic Republic dictatorial regime also committed a severe genocide in Somaliland when his powerful army and his mighty air forces killed hundreds of thousands of Somalilanders and leveled entire cities to the ground. More two million Somalilanders fled the country to Ethiopia to save their lives. 

Somaliland is a very peaceful country that held five democratic elections to select their presidents who made peaceful transfers of power. The country has an existing parliament and a house of elders (Gurti) who make sure that things do not go astray, and that day-to-day life of the citizens go smoothly. 

Somaliland has their own army and police forces and they published their own currency. They have diplomatic offices from the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Djibouti, as well as a consulate office for Turkey. UAE runs the main port (Berbera) and is currently building a military base there. Russia and UK both have interests in building military and naval bases in Somaliland too.

To conclude this article, I want to clarify to the world and to all Somaliland citizens that Somaliland and Somalia can hold a dialogue between them, but they will never agree on anything. The reason is that Somalia is far away from the reality, and they intentionally want to deny the rights of their brothers to choose their destiny. The solution of this stigma is to ask the people of Somaliland what they want through an officially held referendum, and make sure that both countries accept the results of that. 

Omer Ahmed Hassan, MBA
Political & Business Strategist
Hargeisa, Somaliland