Live-stock held in Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia: An open letter to the Somaliland people By Ali Abdi Hersi

On Tuesday 9th July 2019, in the early hours of the morning, live-stock consisting of 20,000 sheep and goats had been loaded on to a ship heading towards the Islamic port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This livestock was intended to be slaughtered for the upcoming holy Islamic month of Hajj, in which the animal is sacrificed as part of the rituals of Islam.

The Somaliland government, had received an order from Saudi Live-stock traders called ‘Al-jabiri’ and the Islamic bank in Jeddah who had paid the price of the live-stock in advance.

When the so-called government in Mogadishu had received the news of the strong establishment ties Somaliland had received; the Mogadishu government had taken the initiative to disrupt the links and prevent the live-stock of Somaliland reaching Saudi Arabia. In addition to this, there have also been reports of Mogadishu sending delegations to disrupt the exportation of live-stock from Berbera to Jeddah. These scheming plans can be seen to undermine our Somaliland government and their failed attempts of destroying our country.

Somaliland, an independent government, which has fought for their freedom and ceased to be a part of Somalia since 1991. After fighting for a long time with Somalia, Somaliland succeeded to obtain and get back their independence. They then formed the Somaliland government, which has no ties with Somalia whatsoever. Although the recognition of the Somaliland government has not yet been identified by many countries in the west, Somaliland has demonstrated their strong government system which consistently tries to meet the needs of the Somaliland people. The society of Somaliland have already established democracy and every individual in society has a right to elect and choose their leaders. Through the previous struggles, the nation has now become more aware of the dangers of totalitarian democracy. The constitutional checks and balances in Somaliland, enables the prevention of abuse of power and ensures that the President, past and present, are upholding the rights of the people and establishing justice.

The structural system upholds the rights of the Somaliland people, as well as ethnic minorities and ensures that the jurisprudence laws are up-held. Somaliland has secured all the requirements to become a separate state, including their own flag, government, state, specific border, and identity. See Figure 1 below, showing the Somaliland borders that are shared with Ethiopia in the south, Djibouti in the west and Somalia in the east, and the Gulf of Aden in the north. All these borders were established in early 19th Century in the colonization period, and it is impossible for it be altered.
Fig.1

Imagine obtained from www.horndiplomat.com

Somalia, is in denial about the success of the Somaliland country that has been independent from them since 1991. Somalia has struggled to develop a stable government since 1991, with much conflict and abuse of power within the region. Warlords and Islamic terrorist groups have ruined and ruled the country, with many of their citizens dying as a consequence on a daily basis. This has caused deep divisions within the country and has caused war, even on the street level. Even the national army and international outside forces (USA and Unisom) have not been able to stabilize the situation, and have failed to stop the growing terrorist group known as AlShabab.
Instead of focussing on the clear and worldwide issues occurring in their own region, they have grown to become envious of the progress that Somaliland is clearly making in terms of stability and development. Their energy is being channelled to destroy the networks, safety and stability that Somaliland has worked so hard to gain. The current ‘Somali government’ has focussed its attention to unify again Somaliland with Somalia, which will never happen. Somaliland and Somalia have grown too far apart since their devastating civil war that was going on for almost 20 years and ended in a loss of many lives of Somaliland nationals. Thanks to Allah, the Somaliland people are recovering from this disaster and have successfully managed to stabilise their country, and established a new found love and pride for their country. The Somaliland government, past and present, have all been successfully democratically elected, and they have provided excellent relationships with neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, UAE, a number of African and European countries, and the far east. The international trade links that we have with the world will not be stopped and will continue to grow. Somaliland has formed a strong army force which can defend their ports and borders of their country. The dream of the weak government in Somalia to capture Somaliland will never happen, so they are engaged in hopeless politics towards Somaliland.
Finally, I would like to stress to the current Somaliland government to issue a notice to the world and international organisations, that the Somalia so called government is non-existent, and the future is looking bleak with no chance of improving in the near future. I am pleading to the world and international organisations, that appealing to the unification argument for Somalia will only gamble the safety, security and progress of the Somaliland people, and also destroy the hard work that the Somaliland government has gained in stability and progress in the past 28 years.
A message to Somalia – Please forget about Somaliland, and unification, it will not happen. The jealousy and envious behaviour needs to stop and it will be better for you to accept that Somaliland is stable and safe, and it is in your interest to do so, to allow for your country to focus on its own issues and allow for success at some point in the future.

Ali Abdi Hersi