By Ahmed A Hirsi
Since the formation and promulgation of the Khatumo State of Somalia, the residents of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn, who subscribe to the Khatumo State of Somalia, have been experiencing endless hostilities, invasions, political manipulations and provocations from Somaliland and Puntland.
The sheer scale and magnitude of underdevelopment and marginalisation endured by the inhabitants of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn who are at the mercy of Somaliland’s invading militia is quite evident to any observer. Moreover, the disadvantage experienced by these inhabitants is multi-dimensional; encompassing not only poverty, poor education and healthcare but other forms of deprivation as well such as the loss of dignity and self-respect, terrorization mass arrests, collective punishment and intimidation to say the least.
As we speak today 30th of August 2014 Somalilands militia bombed the only borehole well operational in Sahdheer rendering the civilians in that town without drinking water. This heinous crime must not go unpunished.
Moreover, if Siilanyo and his henchmen could, they will surround us and wipe our name off the face of the earth. According to reliable sources on the ground 85% of Sahdheer town has been literally burned down to the ground by Siilanyo’s clan militia. The children of the massacred men and women will be vanguard who will grow into millions.
In a nutshell, the invading militia from Hargeysa has curtailed SSC inhabitant’s access to core economic and social entitlements through excessive, punitive taxation and bureaucratic red tape.
The Hidden and the Obvious War
A multi-faceted war on the masses of the Khatumo State of Somalia in every sphere of life has been waged by the above mentioned regional administration, since the people of Khatumo are sandwiched between two hostile entities.
Time and again we’ve witnessed how Somaliland and Puntland Administrations are resorting into deceit, and disinformation whenever Non- Governmental Organizations- (NGO’s) and other United Nations organs attempt to assist our people or whenever there is a tragedy or a humanitarian catastrophe such as drought or flooding that are becoming more prevalent these days than ever before.
Quite honestly, these regional clan enclaves have been efficient, effective and successful in utilizing the insecurity/terrorist card or stamp in scaring away most NGO’s and aid organization from operating in our regions. Aside, fake oil companies are adding more fuel to the fire by bankrolling these invasions.
According to reliable sources frequent secret meetings and collaborations between these two enclaves on different levels do happen; however, what do not know the full extent of these covert meetings and transfers of intelligence and arms together with their destabilisation operations. That is why it never ceases to amaze us when we witness exceptionally high frequencies of rogue politician’s defecting from Puntland to Somaliland and vice-verse. These defections and counter defections are well-crafted schemes that are aimed at causing confusion and divisions among our people.
These defection schemes are tailor suited to not only mock us, but to depict us as people who cannot be trusted or who are politically confused which is far from the truth. Yet, what most observers do not recognize is the millions of dollars paid by oil companies that are fighting for exploration licenses in Nugaal Valley; this money is then used by both Puntland and Somaliland to buy loyal rogue politicians from the region’s defection market.
By bribing few greedy men with hundreds of thousands of dollars of aid money and money from oil companies cannot hurt the hundreds of thousands of Khatumities that have their self-respect intact.
To even make matters worse a new buzz phrase within the international development community has emerged and since we are sandwiched between these two hostile administrations we’ve been dubbed as “Disputed Territory”. The purpose and the use of the term “disputed” is not merely an affront to our intelligence, but it is totally uncalled for.
From legal point of view a territorial dispute is a disagreement over the possession/control of land between two or more states, or over the possession or control of land by a new state and occupying power after it has conquered the land from a former state no longer currently recognized by the new state.
In that case since Somaliland doesn’t technically and legally qualify to be an internationally recognized state therefore its occupation of our soil and its claim about colonial borders is null and void and since there aren’t any agreements in place between the people of the South and North Somalia about the future of these regions after they merged and formed the Republic of Somalia is still intact and legally binding.
Certainly the inhabitants of Khatumo State of Somalia have virtually missed out on whatever help or assistance other Somali/regions have received from the International Community in time of need. Plain and simple — we got blocked and prevented from any meaningful International and Domestic development for the last 22 years.
On top of that our people have immensely suffered arbitrary detention, mass detentions, rape and assassinations at the hand of occupying Somaliland brutal clan militia together with a few mercenaries who are hell-bent on undermining their own people for the sake of one dollar bills.
AID AS A WEAPON
The use of aid as a weapon is not a new phenomenon. On world stage it was widely used in Sudan.
From time to time both Somaliland and Puntland administrations either deny or block aid organizations and NGO’S from carrying out their responsibilities in our regions.
International journalists too are either misinformed or drip-fed into unfounded lies and made up stories regarding non-existent insecurity that are far from the true. On the contrary, the Khatumo State of Somalia is much safer than Somalia and Puntland.
In illustrating the mechanics of this heinous crime whenever aid organizations attempt to prevent a catastrophe or a natural tragedy in relation to an outbreak of infectious diseases such as measles or draught both Somaliland and Puntland regional administrations use all kinds of excuses to deny our people from experiencing our share of medical aid/ relief aid from the United Nations and other NGO’s.
Hence, the politicization and militarization of aid resulted in the first instances of measles outbreaks in Sool region since the collapse of the Somali Government, ca 23 years ago although this virus has been eradicated from the whole world with the exception of it rearing its ugly head in few places in the developing world.
The people of Khatumo do know the co-relation between prevention of health services and outbreak of deadly diseases, whereas aid organizations and the International Community has fallen victim into this well crafted propaganda about our region.
Somaliland’s main aim and objective is and has been for over twenty years to coerce our people into full submission into its fake illusion of secession or suffer the consequences for nonconformity.
Whenever Somaliland leaders are confronted on their abuse of power and the misuse of foreign aid and as to why our parts are lagging behind, the insecurity card will be used as an excuse to camouflage and conceal their theft and racist schemes toward the people of Khatumo. We are also witnessing millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being poured into financing the massacre of our own people.
For instance Somaliland receives a whopping $25.5 million per year from the European Union and other donors and more than 85% of that aid money goes to its ground forces that are stationed in Sool and Sanaag regions.
I employed the term “Regional Administration” since technically speaking Somaliland is an unrecognized entity even the newest nation in Africa, South Sudan refused to acknowledge it as a state.
Though in all fairness, I must admit Somaliland as an independent country does just exist in form of hallucination and in fairy tales, in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people who have the right to dream of any dream they may wish to dream about.
“It’s funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.” Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief.
Ahmed Hirsi
Email:[email protected]
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