Somalia working to ‘stop violence’ amid Somaliland tension

Somalia is working carefully to revive peace in its northern breakaway area of Somaliland amid heightening tensions between the area’s authorities and native clan forces, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud instructed Al Jazeera.

“We imagine that unity is the one answer… however we don’t need this unity via violence, which makes issues worse,” President Mohamud instructed Al Jazeera on Monday.

Violence erupted after leaders of the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn provinces of Somaliland – which claimed independence from Somalia in 1991 – introduced their intention to rejoin Somalia.

Preventing broke out final month across the city of Lascanood in Sool, killing a minimum of 80 individuals and displacing greater than 185,000, in keeping with the UN.

“We’ve been advocating for the final couple of weeks on how we are able to first cease the violence after which open an area for dialogue,” Mohamud stated in a wide-ranging interview through which he talked concerning the state’s combat in opposition to the al-Shabab armed group, a sweeping drought within the nation and gender violence.

‘All-out conflict’ in opposition to al-Shabab

In August final yr, just a few months after being re-elected for a second time, President Mohamud declared an “all-out conflict” in opposition to al-Shabab, which has been waging a revolt in opposition to the federal government since 2007.

“So many individuals have tried to cease this through peaceable means. Now the Somali authorities determined to unravel this via an all-out conflict,” he stated.

“There’s no different possibility aside from to take this terrorist group to a stage the place it can’t threaten the steadiness of the nation,” Mohamud stated, including that the final word goal was to create the proper setting for political inclusion, and appeal to overseas funding in addition to Somalis to return to the nation.

With assist from the US military, African Union (AU) forces and native help, Somalia’s military was capable of regain swaths of territory from the armed group since launching its offensive final yr.

In January this yr, government-led forces recaptured the port city of Harardhere, an al-Shabab stronghold on the Indian Ocean, marking one of the crucial important victories of the offensive.

Al-Shabab responded with a variety of assaults within the capital and different cities, together with focusing on the mayor’s workplace in Mogadishu and an assault on a navy base.

“The AU has achieved an excellent job… and so they have been the explanation why the Somali state began to develop and [why] it has now reached a stage that it offered area for society to develop,” Mohamud stated.

“However now it’s the Somali military, police and intelligence companies [that] are operating the operations with the assist of AU and different worldwide companions.

“Challenges will stay in place,” stated the president, referring to when AU forces depart subsequent yr. “However we’re organising… on one hand we’re combating and, on the opposite, we’re constructing the safety sector.”

Looming famine

The specter of famine in Somalia has been current because the nation went via 5 consecutive failed wet seasons. It now faces a sixth.

In an evaluation final December, the UN estimated that eight million individuals had been badly meals insecure and that greater than 700,000 may endure famine between April and June this yr if support provides will not be elevated.

Nonetheless, in its newest report in late February, UN specialists stated that whereas meals insecurity stays “extraordinarily essential”, they had been now not projecting famine.

“We averted a famine,” stated Mohamud. “There is no such thing as a famine proper now and there’s no threat of famine within the brief time period, nevertheless it’s looming.”

Local weather specialists and humanitarian staff have warned that tendencies in latest weeks, together with expectations of below-normal rainfall, are worse than these in 2011 when 1 / 4 of one million individuals died in Somalia as a consequence of famine.

There are additionally considerations amongst human-rights organisations that information to evaluate the extent of famine will not be correct because of the state of safety in sure areas.

Violence in opposition to ladies

President Mohamud additionally acknowledged the difficulty of gender violence by Somali forces.

In 2021, two UN stories denounced what they described as an “alarming” 80 p.c enhance in sexual violence in Somalia in contrast with 2019, principally carried out by al-Shabab fighters.

However the stories additionally highlighted how sexual violence – for a minimum of 15 p.c of verified circumstances – was attributed to authorities safety forces.

“[Among the] Dangerous traits of the conflict is that it reduces the energy of the state establishments, particularly when these establishments had been weak even earlier than the conflict. We aren’t denying that we now have that downside, and we’re going after it.

“We constructed our judiciary system, we engaged our safety forces and people who have dedicated such crimes are instantly taken to the courtroom.”

Nonetheless, the president acknowledged, “there are some limitations” to the justice system.