by PAWAN KULKARNI
Somaliland is a self-proclaimed republic, with no international recognition, formed in 1991 as a separatist state, breaking away from Somalia’s northwestern region after the civil war. It spans over a strip of land of almost 137,600 square kilometers along the south of the Gulf of Aden – a crucial shipping route, including for petroleum, connecting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. It is now facing what many observers regard as an existential threat as the unionist movement for reunification with Somalia spreads across Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC), which is over a third of what Somaliland regards as its territory.
The protests calling for reunification began in December 2022 in the city of Las Anod, where a declaration was passed in February, proclaiming SSC as a part of Somalia and deeming the presence of Somaliland administration illegal. Somaliland has since been shelling the city. To understand the extent of the damage to the city and its administration under war, Peoples Dispatch spoke to Dr. Jaama Mohamed Mursal from the Las Anod General Hospital, Garad Mukhtar, one of the 14 clan elders of SSC region, and Elham Garad, a Somali unionist activist who arrived in the city to volunteer earlier this week.
Casualties mounted in Las Anod as the troops of Somaliland – a separatist breakaway from Somalia with no international recognition of its claim to sovereignty – continued attempts to reoccupy the city at the heart of the unionist movement to reunite the region with Somalia.
On Saturday, March 18, attacks by the Somaliland army left over 280 people injured and 47 dead, Jaama Mohamed Mursal, a medical doctor at the Las Anod General Hospital told Peoples Dispatch. The hospital has been severely damaged in the bombardment ongoing since early February.
On Sunday, when street-fighting between the Somaliland army and the local troops defending the city continued at a lower intensity, at least 12 more were injured, and two were killed. Somaliland’s troops have since withdrawn to its Goojacade base, about two kilometers on Las Anod’s outskirts, from where they shelled the city for two more days, killing one more on Monday, and three on Tuesday, according to the data compiled from the city’s five hospitals.
While there are no reports of shelling on the city itself since Tuesday, Jaama said that artillery fire could be heard in the Las Anod as the fighting continues on the frontline on its outskirts, as on the evening of Thursday, March 23.
Las Anod, which was captured by Somaliland’s troops in 2007 from Somalia’s autonomous region of Puntland, has become the epicenter of the unionist movement for the reunification of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) with Somalia.
‘We Are Not Part of the Somaliland and Have Never Participated in the Secession Program’
Mass protests against the Somaliland administration erupted in Las Anod at the end of December 2022, calling for reunification with Somalia. These mobilizations were met with a violent crackdown by Somaliland’s security forces that killed at least 20 civilians before retreating to Goojacade.
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