Somaliland's SSC Occupation is a Threat to Peace in the Horn

Born out of terror, the one-clan secessionist enclave calling itself "Somaliland" has espoused terror as a means to achieve its ends from the moment it declared its secession. A reconciliation conference held in Burco in May 1991 among Somalia's northern clans, including those from Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) regions, was hijacked by armed extremists belonging to the secessionist clan's Somali National Movement - a misnomer for a ruthless terrorist organization responsible for the collapse of the Somali State and much of the ensuing woes that befell the Somali people since then. Under duress, and as was dictated to them, the SSC delegates had little choice but to sign up to the secession declaration from Somalia. This treacherous background is the basis for this illegitimate "Somaliland" entity that remains to the present day a scourge on Somalia's unity, peace and revival.

The fact that the SSC delegates repudiated the secession once they were safely back in their regions is neither here nor there as far as the secessionists are concerned. From their perspective, and in their peculiar self-righteous reasoning, what counts and is binding is the declaration signed in Burco, albeit at gunpoint, and not the true stance of the SSC participants of the conference, or the fact that the overwhelming majority of the SSC people have nothing to do with the secession and are sworn to Somalia's unity and territorial integrity.

Availing themselves of the massive military arsenal left over by the disintegrated Somali national army, the one-clan based secessionists had sought from the outset to bring to heel all the unionist regions and clans in the north (former British Somaliland). Hegemony over others, and the misguided belief that full control of the area would lead to a certain recognition have been the rationale behind the enclave's  chauvinistic warmongering. Towards this end, force and terror have been their principal tactics against recalcitrant unionist regions.

The peace-loving people in the Awdal region were the first to fall victim to this later-day incarnation of empire-building modelled on the ways of their former colonial master. After Awadal, it was the turn of the regions of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC), whose unshakeable commitment to the union has kept the secessionists at bay for many years but in the end succumbed to their overwhelming superiority in military hardware. Other than overall control, land grab and ethnic-cleansing have been the secessionists’ main objectives of their SSC invasion and occupation. Read More