Somalia: Can "Somaliland" become an independent state? [Part Two]

(Part Two)
by Qasim Hirsi Farah**
Former Presidential Candidate for Somalia, 2004
Continuation from Part One:
      Part Two: Evaluating Somaliland’s quality and quantity, there is no sign of progress leading her to statehood. Even though citizens are generous, patriotic, sincere, united, and activists in tying diplomacy connections (the latter attribute is exclusive to the Isaqs), it seems unachievable for them to separate from Somalia. Down tracking to the point, none of the stipulations narrated in part one has been found in Somaliland. To break it down, let me begin with the definition of her population:
    * Somaliland do not have fixed population: despite lack of any census over the last two decades, Somaliland advocators state that her population is approximately 3.4 million persons. However, they rely on no official census. As a matter of fact, there have never been a random statistics ever conducted since 1988 when the Somali national census was conducted.1 In that census, the population of the North-West Somali regions – the today’s self-styled state of Somaliland was estimated to be 2.2 Million.2 Right after that census, more or less all the population of Somaliland evacuated the country to Ethiopia, Djibouti and other countries. Hitherto, approximately half of the above stated population have not yet returned to the country. Many still remain in Dul’ad and Hashin refugee camps in Ethiopia or surrounding nomadic communities. Many others finally succeeded in reached for re-settlement in some other continents of the world (by land, sea or air). Added that, as a matter of fact, is that such long lasting emigration still continues, where almost everybody is on journey to anywhere in the globe just to escape from the hell-fire going on in Somalia/Somaliland.Read More