MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is preparing to travel to the disputed town of Lasanod in North-eastern Somalia State to attend the inauguration of the regional president, Abdulkadir Ahmed Aw-Ali Firdhiye, in a move that is likely to heighten tensions with the breakaway Somaliland administration, Caasimada Online news website reported on Sunday.
An advance delegation from the federal government is due to fly to Lasanod in the coming hours to lay the groundwork for the visit, oversee reception arrangements and conduct security preparations ahead of the president’s expected arrival on Thursday.
The visit is being elevated to a full display of federal authority. The prime minister, along with members of his cabinet, is also set to travel to Lasanod, where Somalia’s federal cabinet is scheduled to convene for its weekly meeting.
Lasanod is no ordinary destination. The town sits at the heart of a long-running territorial dispute and is claimed by Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia more than three decades ago. Somaliland lost control of Lasanod in 2023 following fierce gun battles with clan militias aligned with the federal government.
Somaliland’s claim extends beyond Lasanod to other towns now administered by the Lasanod-based Northeastern Somalia state, a federal member state that asserts authority over the area. The federal government’s decision to stage a high-profile presidential visit is widely seen as a direct political response to Israel’s recognition of Somaliland.
Somalia’s ambassador to the United Nations recently told the UN Security Council that Somaliland should be viewed as divided into two regions: Northwest Somalia and Northeast Somalia, with the latter under the authority of the federal government and governed by a functioning federal member state.
The Lasanod visit appears designed to entrench that narrative. It underscores Mogadishu’s determination to project federal sovereignty, challenge Somaliland’s territorial claims and demonstrate to the international community that the Somaliland entity recognised by Israel does not control the full territory of the former British Somaliland protectorate. Federal officials argue that Somaliland’s authority is limited to roughly half of the land it claims and that it lacks support beyond a single dominant clan, with the Harti clans largely aligned with the federal government.
The move is nevertheless expected to provoke sharp reaction from Hargeisa. Somaliland authorities last year condemned a visit by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre to Lasanod, describing it as an act of aggression and a violation of what they consider their territory.
With the president, prime minister and cabinet now poised to follow, the latest trip signals a deliberate escalation in Somalia’s political and territorial confrontation with Somaliland, with Lasanod once again at the centre of a deepening national and regional fault line.
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