Foremost of all, I congratulate Somaliland government for the recent diplomatic breakthrough in the past 20 days.
Secondly, I strongly believe that well before the year 2010, Somaliland took unprecedented political steps, and a consistent way towards international recognition but unfortunately all those hard earned political achievements has been struck down and led to a decline in the international credibility.
Somaliland has now once again gained a momentum and moving in the right direction towards the international relations since Minister Faratoon was appointed, thanks to minister Faratoon and his team. Since the honorable Minister Faratoon appointment to the ministry of foreign affairs, Somaliland has done a real good job regard in international relations and once again scored a number of highly appreciated political successes in the African continent and other parts of the world.
- Gambia parliament twice discussed about Somaliland international recognition
- Taiwan exchanged diplomatic ties and representatives with Somaliland. Somaliland will pursuit it’s god given rights and interests from anyone or countries who are willing to exchange interests.
- USA supports Taiwan v Somaliland’s newly established diplomatic relations
- Uganda legislators mentioned Somaliland recognition in their parliament last week
- UAE accepted Somaliland passport
- Kenya delegation arrived in Somaliland. Kenya’s opposition party MP’s planning to get a motion on recognition of Somaliland to the house. This is led and pushed by Hon. @RailaOdinga
- RailaOdinga Expected to visit Somaliland. While I welcome the Kenyan delegation in Somaliland, equally Somaliland needs to be aware and be careful with the Kenyans as they are always rushing to visit Somaliland whenever they have an issue or some problems with villa Somalia. The Kenyans are always willing to set up a Mirra and other businesses in Somaliland. They are here in Somaliland as soon as they find out that we have trouble with the Ethiopian Qat or Jaad and veggies transportation. If Kenya wants to sustain any relationship with Somaliland then they have to stop the ongoing and the empty lip service entertainment and come out to recognize Somaliland. It’s entirely about an exercise to gain political leverage on the issues they have Mogadishu recently.
- China failed a number of attempts to open a consulate in Hargeisa. Somaliland has every right to accept a relationship with any international communities regardless of whether those countries are recognized or not. As far as we are concerned, Somaliland and Taiwan are two independent countries. Somaliland needs to be vigilant as China will now without a doubt start a political and economic war with Somaliland.
- I welcome the Egyptian delegation, I welcome anyone or any country to visit us, the Egyptians are in Somaliland for one reason and we all know what they are after, it’s perfectly good as everyone have their political interests or pursuits. They are here for the problems they have with the Ethiopians and the fact the Farmaajo government refuses to side with the Egyptian and somehow Farmaajo’s voted and supported the Ethiopians.
While I understand Somaliland can and have the right to talk to anyone including those countries, like the Egyptians, who previously conducted a gravelly damages to Somaliland politically and economically, then it is going without saying that Somaliland cannot afford to upset their Ethiopian neighbor in anyway or form, Ethiopia has done enough for Somaliland since day one.
Somaliland and Ethiopia share so much interest politically and economically and we don’t under any circumstances try and damage that. The Egyptians has done so much damage to Somaliland politically and economically since 1991 and in Siad Bare time, the Egyptians provided the heavy arms that resulted the demolition of Somaliland people and all the assets that they built in the past 200 years. The Egyptians deported many Somaliland students who were studying in Egypt. I, myself was one of the five navy academy whom the Egyptians deported to Mogadishu jails for protesting against the demolition and genocide of their people.
The only affair or relationship that we can exchange with the Egyptian is full recognition. Nothing less.
Egyptians have long been pursuing to have some control in the Red Sea since early 2010, but now, with some sense of urgency wants to control the Red Sea to retain its strategic dominance since the fall out with Ethiopia over the continued bilateral disagreement on the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which Egypt feels would threaten the Blue Nile water flow which they think will damage to Egypt’s livelihood. Egypt has been very active in the region already and has four major naval bases on the Red Sea: Safaga, Hurghada, Berenice, and Suez. Egypt has also maintained four warships in the area of Yemen since 2015, in support of the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi-led Yemenis
Somaliland people have been protective and needs to be more protective of their vital Geo-strategic relationship and historical friendship with Ethiopia. Somaliland has been a vital ally of Addis Ababa and that needs to be kept
Ethiopia assisted and helped Somaliland to the teeth since SNM time, Ethiopia gave safe haven to all Somaliland’s children, women and old people who were lucky enough to scape the heavy artillery and airplanes bombardment that costed many innocent people.
- Another milestone achievements are: that Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK have announced the signing of a series of agreements with Somaliland to invest in the country’s infrastructure. The investments will help provide clean water, more stable roads, and better farmland. These projects will improve the lives of “hundreds of thousands of people by creating jobs and unlocking the region’s
The UK, Denmark and the Netherlands have approved four agreements with Somaliland to fund infrastructure and boost economic growth.
The biggest project will upgrade the road between the second-largest city, Burao, and the port of Berbera.
It will add 82km of all-weather asphalt, resurface bridges and renew drainage to benefit 50,000 regular road users and boost trade in livestock, agriculture and fish.
Another scheme will improve the supply of water to the people of Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital city. It will help the Hargeisa Water Agency extract 4,000 extra cubic meters of water a day from the Laasdhure aquifer. This will increase the water available in Hargeisa by more than 20%, which the British embassy says is enough to meet the needs of a 200,000 people.
The money will also pay for a fishing jetty in the port of Maydh to improve trade between Berbera and the 750,000 people living in the hinterland of Sanaag, and help get the fish to markets.
The fourth scheme involves soil conservation and agriculture.
The British Ambassador to Somalia, Ben Fender, said: “These projects will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by creating jobs and unlocking the region’s economic potential.
The National Development Plan has been costed at $2. 1bn between 2017 and 2021, only $81m of which is expected to be supplied by the government of Somaliland.
The schemes are part of the second phase of the Somaliland Development Fund program, called SDF2.
I believe the COKA COLA company and the Berbera UAE DP World recent investments in Somaliland are the eye opener for Somaliland both politically and economically, in which I personally believed in the end paved the way to all the above diplomacy breakthrough for Somaliland
The above mentioned diplomatic succession will undoubtedly and inevitably open many more international opportunities, therefore Somaliland government needs to render a clear plan and a vision and the right people for this to succeed
As Somaliland entered a new era and have an immense task ahead of us, we need to more proactive and have a controlling framework for those above tasks
We need to deliver the right Approach for each task, right development frameworks and Strategic Planning, Very well experienced heavyweight groups or commissions with Strategic thinking for each task plus bringing an outside facilitator international consultant if required
It is vital to have a Structured development guide and a Preparation for strategic thinking for everything, Who should be involved in strategic thinking and provision
When, who and how should a strategic thinking and planning process be done.
Effective, ongoing strategic planning and implementation. .
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation must be carried out on each task and on a weekly or monthly review to make sure everyone and everything is going smoothly as it should be done
Viva SOMALILAND
We are moving in the right direction
A proud Somalilander and an independent political and economic Analyst
AhmedYasin Mohamed Jama
