The Las Anod Conflict Brings Back Shades of the Late 1980s Somalia.

DISCLAIMER: Some Somali tribes’ names might be mentioned in the piece. The sole reason of mentioning them is to educate the reader.

Las Anod, the capital of Somalia’s Sool province, has lately been the major talking topic of Somalis everywhere, and not for good reasons. The city has been subject to more than a month of intense fighting between local rebel forces and Somaliland forces.

Historical Context

Las Anod was pre-independence, a British colony. The native clans of Las Anod, mainly the Dhulbahante, have been at war with the British colonist for over two decades. This province and its surroundings are where the famous anti-colonial Dervish movement was born. After the Dervishes were militarily subdued in the early 1920s, the British colonist conquered the rest of the region by force. What needs to be stressed here is that unlike some other Northern tribes, Dhulbahante never signed a treaty that renders their territories a protectorate with the British colonist.

After the civil war broke out in the country in 1991, the SSC (Sool, Sanaag and Cayn {a chunk of the larger Togdheer province}), became subject to contest between the two successively formed polities, Somaliland which unilaterally declared secession from the rest of Somalia and Puntland, a federal member state of Somalia. Somaliland based and continues to base its claim over SSC on colonial borders, while the latter on clan affiliations with SSC communities. It’s known that the Dhulbahante elders signed a “peace treaty” with Somaliland early on but between the two, were more involved in the formation of Puntland. In fact, the city in question was under the rule of Puntland until 2007. It was later that year when Somaliland militarily captured the city. But Las Anod and SSC communities in general, never truly accepted Somaliland separating them from the rest of Somalia.

Root Causes of the Current Conflict

This conflict has been brewing for a while. It’s the mere eruption of a pent-up resentment against Somaliland.

Its fundamental cause is the ideological mismatch between Unity and Secession. Given these regions’ communities were always deemed staunch nationalists and have contributed to the independence of the country, for them, seceding from the rest of it was never an option.

Secondly, Somaliland’s rule over the region came through military means, not the community’s consent. The locals viewed Somaliland as occupiers.

Thirdly, these communities did not partake in Somaliland’s referendums in which breaking away from Somalia was constitutionalized.

Moreover, Somaliland didn’t help itself and earn the community’s trust as it didn’t bring much developmental projects into the region nor manage its security properly, as insecurity festered in these provinces during their reign.

Somaliland Chooses to Respond with Brute Force

Since driven out of Las Anod, the Somaliland administration went down the route of attempting to recapture it by force.

They shelled the city to smithereens, killing thousands of civilians, whilst also displacing over a 185 thousand others. In one particularly painful case, a mother and her 7 children were all killed as the result of the indiscriminate shelling. The father from the severe trauma, lost his sanity and is presently held in a mental health facility in Garowe. The administration’s own speaker of parliament, Abdirizak Khalif who hails from Sool, called what Somaliland carried out in Las Anod, a “gruesome genocidal campaign”.

The administration’s insistence on continually branding the SSC elders and local rebel forces “terrorists” when there is no terrorist presence, burned any remaining bridges. To this day, Somaliland’s government and the entire political class continue calling the locals of Las Anod terrorists.

Bihi; a Carbon Copy of Barre

In 1988-1989, Somalia’s then government carried out a barbaric military campaign against the Isaaq tribe who were seen as restive by the regime, their goal being forcing them into submission. Major cities such as Hargeysa and Burco were bombed aerially and shelled for prolonged periods of time. Countless numbers of civilians were killed and displacement was rife. Somaliland’s current president, Musa Bihi, was a high-ranking officer in the SNM, a militia established by the Isaaq tribe to save their community from president Barre and his revolutionary council. The irony is, Bihi, a victim then but an aggressor now, has taken many leaves out of Barre’s textbook. And although the scale of raids and number of casualties were significantly higher in 1988, the key tenets remain the same; oppressing, demonizing and aiming to crush and lord over the opponent. Bihi’s justification for shelling and killing civilians is that he’s “safeguarding Somaliland’s territorial integrity”. In Barre’s case, he was “safeguarding the country’s unity”. Bihi labelled the locals of Las Anod terrorists, Barre did exactly the same back in the day. Bihi blames the Las Anod uprising on a host of forces, be it terrorist groups, Puntland, the Federal government of Somalia and Liyu police, an Ethiopian paramilitary force. Barre blamed the Isaaq uprising on foreign forces as well. Simply put, Bihi is a loyal disciple of Barre, a figure loathed in Somaliland, and is treading on a well-trodden path.

The Federal Government’s Indifference

Since this conflict commenced, the Federal government’s response has been underwhelming. Apart from a press conference held by the interior minister in which he welcomed Las Anod elders’ plea to place their region under the government’s rule and sending a plane carrying medical supplies, no concrete steps ensued. Both the president and prime minister spoke about the issue a few times and despite calling for peace, termed the issue a “Somaliland issue” which the “people of Somaliland” should peacefully and “internally” resolve.

Ways forward

Somalis are familiar with conflicts like this. The aggressors tend to refuse listening to voices of reason and waste lots of human lives and resources in their bid to try and come out victorious. But if history is any indication, the opposite of that is what always happens. The victims, often the locals of an area, end up prevailing but at the cost of thousands of lives perishing in the process.

The solution to Las Anod’s problems is straightforward, let the locals decide their fate, as trying to force them into anything other than their wish will never work.

If Somaliland can secede from Somalia and can’t be forced back into union, SSC by the same token have earned the right to pursue their self-determination. If the Somali republic’s unity isn’t sacred, a colonial border isn’t.

Mediation efforts led by Somalis and/or non-Somalis, should be welcomed by all parties to avoid the loss of more lives. An Ethiopia-led mediation has by the looks of it, collapsed. But the voluntary introduction and arrival of elders of the Hawiye and Digil-Mirifle tribes to help subside the conflict, is a breath of fresh air. A Somali led and owned reconciliation process could go a long way in bringing about an end to the Las Anod bloodshed.