Little Djibouti's long-term hostility towards Somaliland and Ismail Omar Guelleh's enduring fear of Isaaq is deeply rooted in history.
Specifically how the Isaaqi SNM ended the "Esayi Dream", destroyed Guelleh's USF and almost had him killed in 1991.
Read below:
November 1989:
The situation is eerily identical to July 2024. See for yourself:
- Disgruntled Gadabursi diaspora founded the Somali Democratic Alliance (SDA) with Oromo refugees (!) and funding from Somalia.
- The Issa launched United Somali Front (USF) with the support of boon Marehan soldiers of Siad Barre, the USF was headed by Djibouti's second-in-command back then, Ismail Omar Guelleh.
The USF's 500 fighters were trained at a barracks in Djibouti: the Cheikh Osman camp.
- The Darods revived the United Somali Party (USP) of the 1950s, uniting the Warsangeli and Dhulbahante and mobilising them to oppose the Isaaq."
SDA ==> Fake Awdal State
USP ==> Terrorist SSC militia
The remaining constant in this equation being Ismail Omar Guelleh, who was Aptidon's righthand man back then and little Djibouti's dictator today.
Whats taking shape in the Horn is nothing new. The same forces conspiring against Somaliland and Isaaq in 1989 are making near identical moves in 2024.
But why did Little Djibouti involve herself in Isaaq affairs with such force in the first place?
Mainly two reasons:
1. Fear of Isaaq economic and political hegemony over Somalis in the Horn of Africa, and
FIVE YEARS AGO, in July of 2019, faqash propagandist @AnalystSomalia made a post advertising a workshop he was personally delivering, in Hargeisa Somaliland!
Somalia has just given away 30% of its entire marine resources to Turkey. This includes fisheries, offshore-oil and gas and deep sea mining rights.
They've done this in exchange for protection from illegal fishing!
This is the robbery of the century.
Lets unpack this:
1. Somalians are attempting to insinuate that the deal will act as a bulwark against the Somaliland - Ethiopia MoU. This is nonsense.
Somalia's leader Hassan Sheikh is very precise in his address that the agreement is to target illegal fishing and dumping of waste within Somalian waters.
2. The timing of the deal is significant.
It comes as Somalia attains debt relief status (meaning access to fresh borrowing) + removal of the arms embargo.
Turkish firms have essentially secured complete monopoly not only over Somalian coast, but also very lucrative contracts related to the rebuilding of Somalian navy.
Huge contracts serviced by new Somalian debt incoming.
The United States is coming to Berbera, Somaliland.
The maritime base at Berbera is near completion.
Tomorrow's meeting in Djibouti between Pres. Muse Bihi and Somalia's Hassan Sheikh is most likely about Berbera, no other issue commands such urgency.
1. Timeline of Berbera maritime base construction.
Although the work has been ongoing for years now, all construction was paused for some time before being resumed in May of 2022.
What happened in May 2022?
2. May 2022 was when the Commander of the US Africa Command Gen. Stephen J. Townsend visited the Republic of Somaliland and met with President Muse Bihi.
The delegation promptly visited Berbera and surveyed facilities.
Within days of the visit, construction work on the Berbera maritime base was resumed.
Classified internal UN documents from 1994 show the level of contempt these institutions and INGOs have for Somaliland.
Pandering to them is the biggest mistake we ever made as a nation.
Note how they wouldn't even name SL and would refer to the "Administration" in this 1994 doc.
The language cant get any more explicit. Reads almost like a film villain's monologue:
"They need us more than they want us out"
"necessary evil"
"as long as we continue to pay..."
They saw the relationship with Somaliland's government as purely transactional; pay = "a cushion of acceptability".
It should then come as no surprise that over time, they were able to cultivate a level of dependency, turning our government meek and agreeable to their presence..
A radical shift is a needed. We need to go back the spirit of 1991.
Please read.
In the first 10 years of Somaliland's existence, we were a nation that was utterly devastated by genocide and subsequent liberation war.
But the story of Somaliland; what we stood for, what we believed in, was crystal clear.
Somehow this is not the case today. A quick example:
1. In Feb 1996, the High Court of Somaliland sentenced AUN Abdirahman Tuur, the founding father of this nation, to death in absentia for rejecting Somaliland's independence.
Somaliland was uncompromising and stood firm, even against the very man who led its liberation.