Time For Direct Action

EDITORIAL

As revealed by Kenya’s Foreign minister Raphael Tuju on last Tuesday, Inter Governmental Authority on Development’s plan to deploy peacekeeping troops to Somalia will include Somaliland.

According to Mr. Tuju, the Igad force is supposed to protect [Somalia’s] Transitional Federal Government and institutions, help train civilian protection force and establish a united civilian protection force for the whole of Somalia, including Somaliland. Saying that it wasn’t in the mandate of the Igad peacekeepers to engage in any activity of offensive nature to the Somali people, the Kenyan official who is also the chairman of Igad council of ministers, has emphasized that that part of the mission’s objective was to train Somalis on how to manage their own affairs.

Somalilanders have been stunned by the revelation that their peaceful country will be targeted for military intervention by Igad. Though for most people the idea of Igad troops coming to Somaliland seemed to be devoid of logic and stupid, however the Kenyan Foreign minister’s statements provided a further proof that as long as Somaliland is not in full control of its eastern borders with Somalia, it will remain vulnerable to hostile external interventions whether by regional spoilers such as Igad or Wahabists such as Mogadishu’s Itihad Al Mahakem Al Islamia.

What the Somaliland government should immediately do is to clear Las-anod of Abdillahi Yusuf’s militia and then move forward to secure its side of the border with Somalia. The fulfillment of this task would deny Igad any excuses to claim that their peacekeepers were needed in the area to prevent a clash between Somaliland and Puntland over Las-Anod. Handling the Las-Anod problem successfully, would also set Somaliland’s hands free to deal with the growing influence of Mogadishu’s Itihad courts in the Sool region.

No matter how big is the amount of external assistance it received, Puntland potentiality to challenge the Wahabist threat will remain limited due to a host of factors including the reign of warlordism which has been an obstacle to the development of a superior form of political organization and governance.

A clear evidence of this is the fact that agents of Itihad courts operate openly these days in Las-Anod, with the Puntland militia there too confused and powerless to confront them.
Certainly Somaliland cannot wait until Las-Anod becomes a major center for recruitment and planning of terrorist operations against the rest of the country or is used as a pretext by Igad to blackmail Somaliland.

Source: Somaliland Times

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