By: Cali Caraale
Somalilanders are an optimistic lot. They have been waiting for recognition from the international community for almost twenty years without success yet not once have they doubted that their holy grail is just round the corner; that Africa, America, Britain Ethiopia or perhaps even Israel will see the justice of their cause and award them the recognition they believe they richly deserve.
Watching Europe and America recognise over twenty new nations in Europe and Eurasia during the same period they were struggling for the same right does not seem to dim their cheery expectation that their day will come too. Being resolutely ignored and on occasion deliberately humiliated by all regional and international institutions is dismissed as mere temporary impediments on their historic journey to ultimate glory.
One can only admire their naïve convictions but there is a terrible truth Somalilanders must one day wake up and face: they are not going to be recognised any time soon and perhaps never will be. Not by Europe loth to have yet another begging-bowl stretching African non-state calling on their recession depleted foreign aid packages. Not by America whose African policy is currently shaped by a cabal of African-Americans brought up on the romantic notions of Negritude and Pan-Africanism and who consider any further breaking up of `big village mother Africa’ as tantamount to racial treachery.
And they are certainly not going to be recognised by dictatorial Arab nations viscerally opposed to any form of geopolitical change in their region lest it gives their restless populations unwanted ideas. Somalilanders dillydallying with that tiresome Western stuff called democracy does not help matters at all.
And forget the AU members, unless, perhaps, Somalilanders could muster a slush fund to grease the palms of those eager, smiley lawmakers across the continent who are open to negotiations on all affairs, for the right price. Somaliland has no access to such wealth at this stage; partially because they are forced by lack of recognition to spend most of their meagre resources on maintaining an oversize army in order to survive in this bad neighbourhood. Analysts in Hargeisa, the capital like to point out if Somalia were to attack Somaliland tomorrow as it did in the late 80s it will not be seen as a foreign invasion but as a civil war or even, incredibly, a Nation State justifiably ‘pacifying’ a rogue region.
And finally to kill off any chance of this desert entity ever getting on a world map, they have managed to accumulate an extraordinarily diverse collection of enemies determined to smother the place to death before it gets born. Egypt is one such enemy. Cairo believes that a strong, united Somalia is essential element in its biblical, existential struggle with Ethiopia over the life-giving waters of the Nile. Cairo is completely deluded as usual (Modern Egypt has a history of bad analysis, planning and strategy on regional matters) because Somaliland will never be part of Somalia again but the Mubarak regime still issues telling statements about ‘the sovereignty…and territorial integrity’ of Somalia every time the issue of Somaliland is raised by sympathisers in the AU, UN or the Arab League.
Saudi Arabia is equally hostile to the very idea of a free, democratic, secular little new nation across its red sea waters. The UN bureaucracy is so hostile to the place it even refuses to mention its name.
All of this rule out any chance of recognition unless there are tectonic, miraculous political sea changes in the area. Somalilanders may still hope but miracles only occur in ancient religious tales not in cold, modern-day political realities. They need to face this awful truth not matter how painful and spend their energies on ways of living without recognition rather than hankering after its mirage.
(Next time: Ways of surviving in State of non-recognition)
By: Cali Caraale
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The United States is increasing ties with two semi-autonomous regions in Somalia, hoping to build stability for the embattled central government and African Union forces deployed in the virtually lawless nation, a top U.S. diplomat said on Friday. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said U.S. officials were developing ties with authorities in both Puntland and Somaliland, both of which declared themselves independent in the early 1990s when the Horn of Africa nation descended into civil war and anarchy.
Carson said the United States did not plan to recognize either government as an independent state. But he said increased U.S. cooperation, particularly on aid and development, could head off inroads by Islamist Al Shabaab insurgents, who stepped up their fight to topple Somalia's Western-backed central administration last month.
"Both of these parts of Somalia have been zones of relative political and civil stability and we think they in fact will be a bulwark of extremism and radicalism that might emerge from the south," Carson told a news briefing.
Carson said the United States would also reach out to groups in south central Somalia, including local governments and family clans, that are opposed to Al Shabaab but not aligned formally or directly with the government in Mogadishu.
Carson stressed he United States would continue to recognize only a single Somali state and would work to strengthen the transitional government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, which has lost control of much of Mogadishu and much of southern and central Somalia to the Al Shabaab rebels.
"We do not contemplate and we are not about to recognize either of these entities or areas as independent states," Carson said.
But he added that both regions could expect more concrete U.S. help with education, agriculture and water projects. "In the past we have not engaged these areas and political entities aggressively. We will now start to do so," Carson said.
FUNDING MORE PEACEKEEPERS
The United Nations this week convened a "mini-summit" on Somalia on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, hoping to drum up fresh support for expanding the peacekeeping operation in the country.
Al Shabaab, which has links to al Qaeda, is increasingly seen as a regional threat and have used suicide bombers to devastating effect over the past two years, killing five government ministers and dozens of African Union peacekeeping troops. The group was also behind attacks in Uganda in July that killed at least 79 people.
There have been repeated calls to strengthen the African Union force, known as AMISOM, made up of about 7,200 troops from Burundi and Uganda.
Uganda has said it is ready to contribute more troops, but that it will need help to fund them. Carson said the United States was actively pressing both Asian and Arab nations to help with cash and military equipment.
"We believe that the problem in Somalia is both a regional and a global problem and in fact should be shared globally," Carson told a news briefing, arguing that increased piracy off Somalia's coast is a direct threat to both oil shipping and other trade between Europe and Asia.
Carson said he had spoken to Japan about increasing its support, but believed countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia also had a direct stake in stabilizing Somalia.
Source: Reuters
Dominique Lafont, CEO of Bollore Africa Logistics, announced in Nairobi that the facility will help ease Ethiopia import and export needs through maritime transport system and open new income stream for the government of Somaliland. "We shall be setting the port up as the national port of Ethiopia," said Lafont. The port will be run under concession basis, which marks the company’s entry into the infrastructure concessions in East Africa. The company already manages the ports of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. It also manages the rail lines of Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. "We are interested in entering concession agreements for ports in East Africa and along the Indian Ocean but the challenge is that most of the ports are run by the governments." "We are keen to work along the development of transport systems within the East Africa Common Market," said Lafont. The company has a strong presence in East Africa and around 40 African countries through its logistics arm SVD Tansami.
"Climate variability in Africa does not seem to have a significant impact on the risk of civil war,"
"If you apply a number of different definitions of conflict and various different ways to measure climate variability, most of these measurements will turn out not to be associated with each other."
http://www.bbc.