by JAMAL ABDULAHI
The history of European colonialism and the endless U.S. desire for a military presence strengthen a Somalia secessionist movement and warfare that most people in that country do not want.
One outcome of the Somali Republic’s political collapse in 1991 was the secessionist Somali National Movement (SNM) in northern Somalia. SNM made a mission to carve out a group of states to form a new country and named it Somaliland. Leaders of the SNM have asked the international community to recognize Somaliland as an independent state but to no avail.
Support for secession has been confined to the city limits of Hargeisa, the second-largest city in Somalia and the proposed capital of Somaliland. The combination of lack of interest both nationally and globally reinforced by fierce resistance by unionists helped Somalia remain one country.
However, that may change now that the United States Department of Defense (DOD) is interested in establishing a military base in the region. In 2022, Idaho Senator James Risch proposed to recognize the self-declared country in exchange for a military base.
Senator Risch’s proposal was never seriously considered in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s African Affairs Subcommittee or in the full Senate. Yet, the DOD inserted language into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year of 2023 that directed the DOD to engage in Somaliland and submit a classified report with recommendations to Congress:
The details are listed in section 1275 of the NDAA under the heading “Report and Feasibility Study on Collaboration to Meet Shared National Security Interest in East Africa.”
Somali unionists reacted negatively. Secessionists celebrated.
The NDAA came at the worst possible time for the SNM separatists. They were in deep disagreement with one another about rules for holding elections in the self-declared country. In November 2022, different factions clashed on the streets of Hargeisa. Eight people were killed, 120 were wounded and over 1,000 were arrested.
Then there was an uprising against the secessionists in Las Anod, the capital of Sool. Sool is one of the states that secessionists want to include in the proposed new country, but its residents want nothing to do with seditious conspiracy.
These ongoing twin crises bring the separatist region into focus. The election deadlock in Hargeisa and the uprising in Las Anod are two separate but interlinked events.
SNM leaders and supporters disagree on how to proceed with elections for areas fully in their control. The dispute over the election is a function of the level of fervor for the conspiracy to split Somalia. There is less passion for separatism in other cities outside of Hargeisa.
The atmosphere in Hargeisa is the result of a false political narrative. Career politicians and business tycoons promote a colonial-era folktale that Somalia and Somaliland were two countries prior to the formation of the Somali Republic on July 1, 1960.
This idea is baseless. It mischaracterizes how Somalia was divided and subdivided under the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference where Europeans set the trajectory for Africa.
Somalia was divided into five territories. Britain controlled three including today’s Eastern Ethiopia, Northern Kenya, and the British Protectorate of Somaliland, hence the name. Italy colonized the southern region including Mogadishu. France controlled today’s Djibouti.
Britain and Italy decided to combine northern and southern states to form the new Somali Republic. The 19th-century colonizers and today’s imperialists failed to coordinate an exact date for the independence for the new nation.
The failure to agree on an exact date for the launch of the new republic was a function of each colonizing nation’s political culture. Britain valued a speedier decision in comparison to Italy.
The disagreement led to four days difference between the northern states of Somalia gaining independence on June 26th and the southern states becoming free on July 1st, 1960. The Somali Republic was born with Mogadishu as its capital.
The colonizers never intended to create two countries. It was not the intention in 1960 and there is no support for it today.
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