hadhwanaag
Fighting in the area of
Las Anod, in the breakaway Somaliland republic, has escalated, with medical
sources now saying more than 100 people have been killed in three weeks of
clashes.
Local militias are
fighting to pull three regions away from Somaliland in order to rejoin Somalia.
So far, calls for a cease-fire are being ignored.
Las Anod is the capital
of the Sool region, which together with the Sanaag and Cayn regions is fighting
to withdraw from Somaliland and be governed by Somalia to the south.
Dr. Abdimajid Husein
Sugule told VOA that the five hospitals in the town were running out of medical
supplies and bed space, as more injured and dead people were brought into the
facilities each day.
He said this week that
105 people had been killed and 602 injured in the three weeks of fighting.
The U.N. and other
diplomatic missions in the country have called for an end to the fighting, and
so has Somalia’s federal government. Despite these calls, shelling and gunfire
have continued as both sides have dug trenches to defend their positions.
Somaliland President
Muse Bihi announced last week that he would be dispatching clan elders to seek
an end to the violence. However, clan elders in the battle-battered town demanded
that Somaliland pull out its troops first as a precondition for dialogue.
A standoff
Abdiaziz Isaack, a
security analyst with Hamad Bin Khalifa Civilization Center, a cultural and
research organization, said it was unlikely that either side would back down on
its demands for dialogue. He said that while the elders in Las Anod see the
pullout of the Somaliland forces as critical for confidence building and
lessening tensions, Somaliland on the other hand perceives a pullout as
creating a vacuum, which could allow Puntland to return.
Somaliland captured the
Sool region from Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland region and the two sides
have been involved in deadly disputes since then.
Isaack said the only
viable option for resolving the dispute was pressure from the international
community.
He said Somali
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's call for an end to the violence at the
beginning of February had been met with silence. That, he said, left the
international community as the only broker that could employ diplomacy and
pressure to stop the fighting.
On Thursday, officials
from the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu visited Somaliland, where they condemned the
fighting in Las Anod and called for a cease-fire.
Mohamed Ahmed, a
security analyst at Nomad Development Enterprise, a security consultancy in
Mogadishu, told VOA that rising international pressure could end the fighting
soon.
But he added that
Somaliland might not agree to withdraw its forces from Las Anod as a condition
for talks because of possible domestic pressures faced by Bihi.
Bihi’s term as
president ended in November 2022, although he secured an additional two years
from parliament.
Ahmed said Somaliland
thinks a withdrawal from Las Anod could risk its control. Also, he said, Bihi,
lacking a full mandate and political backup, likely fears that withdrawing
Somaliland troops from Las Anod could draw criticism from the political
opposition.
Aid agencies have
warned the fighting could worsen an already fragile humanitarian situation, as
the Horn of Africa battles a severe drought that the U.N. warns could
degenerate into famine by midyear.
VOA
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