by ANN GARRISON
On Saturday, August 26, blue flags and social media messages proclaimed a Somali nationalist victory over the secessionist forces that had held them under siege in the city of Las Anod and the surrounding region of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn (SSC) since February 2023. Dr. Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad, a frequent contributor to Black Agenda Report, tweeted , “With today’s developments in #SSC I want to call on Khaatumo State & its leaders to be gracious in victory, please treat the misguided young men from #Somaliland forces decently.”
This story has received no international press, but it’s a crucial victory in the struggle for a cohesive Somali nation. I spoke to Somali American software engineer and writer Jamal Abdulahi, about its meaning and its significance to the various imperial interests discouraging Somali unity.
ANN GARRISON: Jamal, you have written about the nationalist struggle in Somalia’s Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn region for Black Agenda Report, but could you summarize it again?
JAMAL ABDULAHI: In late 2022, secessionist forces attempted to break up peaceful unionist protests in the city of Las Anod but ended up killing scores and wounding scores more. Among those killed were a number of young people who were executed at point blank range by the secessionist forces.
The killings sparked an uprising that quickly became an armed struggle. Thousands took up arms against the secessionist regime headquartered in Hargeisa.
The secessionist forces regrouped and received more reinforcements from Hargeisa. They gathered at Goojacade, a former Somali National Army base at the outskirts of the city. It’s from this base that the secessionist forces shelled the city of Las Anod indiscriminately for six months.
Many civilians were killed and many more wounded. Displacement is estimated at over 100,000 .
Local unionist forces engaged in pitched battles with secessionist forces each time the city was shelled.
Finally, unionist forces broke through the secessionists’ defense lines on Saturday, August 26, 2023, and the secessionists suffered a crushing defeat.
Hundreds of secessionist forces were captured, and scores were killed and wounded. The scattering secessionists abandoned a great deal of military hardware, including heavy artillery, rocket launchers, and armored personnel carriers.
Secessionist forces who fled regrouped in the town of Oog, 90 miles north of Las Anod. This is where leaders of SSC-Khaatumo demanded that secessionist forces be withdrawn in early 2023 for talks to commence.
Now that secessionist forces are in Oog, SSC-Khaatumo leadership has called for peace talks despite ongoing bellicose rhetoric from Somaliland President Muse Bihi . It’s a tremendous victory for the unionists and for peace in northern Somalia.
AG: What are the imperial interests involved in this struggle, and how might this victory affect them?
JA: Both the UK and the United States have strategic and natural resource interests in northern Somalia.
The British have a colonial legacy in the region, which was a British protectorate before the Somali Republic was born in 1960, so there are historical ties. Recently, the British firm Genel Energy has been exploring for oil and gas in the region.
For the United States, the 2022-2023 National Defense Appropriation Act (NDAA) calls for a feasibility study for establishing a military base in the port of Berbera on Somalia’s northern coast. That is continuing.
It’s unlikely that either will be dramatically impacted by the unionist victory over the secessionists in SSC in the near future. Both the UK and United States have vast resources to protect their interests.AG: The call for a feasibility study in the 2022-2023 NDAA for building a US military base in the Port of Berbera repeatedly spoke of negotiating with Somaliland directly, bypassing the federal government and violating Somalia’s sovereignty, but President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud didn’t protest. Why do you think he didn’t object to seeing Somalia’s sovereignty violated in this way?0
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