How Somaliland President Stokes Clan Hostilities

In November 2010 a dispute over building water-reservoirs at Kalshaale hamlet in Togdheer region in northern Somalia developed into clashes between two sub-clans from two clans living in the area. The dispute over the water-reservoirs was brewing for several months. Two days before last year’s Eid-ul-Adha day a man from Buuhoodle traveling in his truck was murdered by some men from Somaliland president’s clansmen who were building water-reservoirs at Kalshaale grazing land.

Rather than handing over suspects to the authorities in Burco, the administrative capital of Togdheer region, and starting talks with the clan of the murdered man as the Somali customary law stipulates if the clan or sub-clan identities of perpetrators are known, Somaliland president’s clansmen men let matters fester to a point where the murdered man’s clansmen from Buuhoodle attacked men they thought to be murderers.

A mediation conference has been held for the feuding sub-clans. Somaliland administration supported this approach to resolving clan disputes through the inter-clan customary law rather than through the Somaliland legal system. For the sake of argument give the Somaliland administration the benefit of doubt that its position is based on the logic that only one of the clans—that of Somaliland president’s— supports the Somaliland secession, therefore it is reasonable to adjudicate resource-related disputes through the customary law.

Joint mediation committee was formed to discuss the clashes and causes of clashes to avert further bloodshed. At the end of the mediation conference, a declaration was issued by the elders of the clan of the Somaliland president. Buuhoodle elders have rejected the outcome of the mediation. In such a situation the two parties call for a third, impartial party to adjudicate the disputes. Somaliland president, Ahmed Mohamed Siilaanyo has issued a statement supporting the outcome of the mediation and said government would send Somaliland forces to the disputed grazing land to enforce the recommendations from “ elders”.

Somaliland president’s decree was not only a provocation but it also undermined all the goodwill that people in the Northern Somalia have built since 1991: he took sides in the dispute by aiming to enforce recommendation from his clan’s elders although he claims to be a president for all people in Ex-British Somaliland including Buuhoodle elders.

After the deployment of forces that Somaliland administration calls a national army at Kalshaale, clashes had taken place between Buuhoodle-based militias on one side and assortment of clan militias with contingents of Somaliland “security forces” on the other side. More than 100 men have been killed on both sides. President Siilaanyo’s 2011 decree to use violence to bring the Kalshaale incident to an end is one of the documented presidential decisions to stoke clan hostilities in post-1991 Somalia.

Augustine Philip Mahiga, the United Nations Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia told Radio Daljir that the drought had caused Kalshaale clashes. Somaliland administration receives development aid from the European Union on behalf of regions Somaliland government regards as constituent parts of what was known as Ex-British Somaliland. Not all regions in Ex-British Somaliland are under the Somaliland administration.

Somaliland has never disclosed how development aid is distributed and who makes decisions on whose behalf. The British government is funding training for Somaliland security forces being conducted in Ethiopia. In May 2011, Somaliland will celebrate its twentieth anniversary since a group of former Somali National Movement leaders declared a unilateral secession.

There are three political parties in Somaliland; two successful elections were conducted in parts of ex-British Somaliland under Somaliland administration. Those achievements are eclipsed by Somaliland president’s miscalculations to fan clan hostilities and undermine both traditional and modern conflict resolution approaches in this age of increased awareness about human rights violations.

Liban Ahmad

Email: libahm@gmail.com