Garowe (PP Editorial ) — The peace summit in Erigavo, concluded by Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (aka Irro), the President of the Somaliland Administration, comes thirty years after the 1995 Erigavo Agreement. What distinguishes the 2025 summit from the 1995 Agreement is that no references were made to the principles of the 1995 Erigavo Agreement. The Somaliland Administration seems to be using the summit as a public relations exercise.
The press release mentions the “Republic of Somaliland”, a baseless claim that, when invoked in 2021, resulted in the forcible displacement of more than 1,700 Somalis in Laascaanood, and in 2023, the displacement of more than 300,000 when the Somaliland Administration shelled Laascaanood under the pretext that residents were harbouring Al-Shabaab and the district is not a part of the Federal Republic of Somalia. The district is, in fact, part of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
President Irro’s efforts to promote peaceful co-existence in Erigavo will make sense only if he boldly addresses the secessionist claims that caused conflict between the Dir and Darod clans, considering the current federal power-sharing arrangement.
The Somaliland Administration has now realised that it was futile to propose in 2023, at the height of the Laascaanood conflict, a two-state solution as a precondition for a ceasefire, after “the members of the Security Council called for the immediate withdrawal of “Somaliland” security forces.” The Federal Government of Somalia has exercised its authority to oblige non-Somali visitors to Somalia to apply for an e-Visa. All airplanes to Hargeisa require non-Somali travellers to produce an e-Visa before travelling to the Federal Republic of Somalia. The policy also affects Somalis with dual citizenship.
The task now is to clarify how people with two rival political identities — Somalis who see themselves as citizens of the Federal Republic of Somalia and those who view themselves as citizens of the Somaliland Administration — can co-exist in Erigavo. The issue of co-existence came to light only after the Laascaanood conflict, where the Harti allied forces and the Somaliland Administration forces, in 2023, engaged in a six-month-long conflict. Only the Harti forces shouldered the responsibility to defend their citizenship rights, despite Somalis from other parts of the Federal Republic of Somalia being the first to experience the pain of forcible displacement after the secession claim of Somaliland administration was invoked for forced displacement in Laascaanood in 2021, when the Somaliland Administration controlled the administrative capital of the North East State of Somalia
The Somaliland Administration has federal representation in the federal institutions in Mogadishu. It is quite encouraging that the Darod traditional and political leaders have welcomed the proposal that Hawiye, Digil & Mirifle and Beesha Shanaad will mediate between the Dir and Darod clans at war with each other in northern Somalia. Respecting residential and property rights of the citizens of the Federal Republic of Somalia is the path to lasting peace in northern Somalia.
© Puntland Post, 2025
