Postby mahdi01 » Wed Oct 27, 2010 4:23 pm
Socotra was Somali territory and had Somali population until the British ceded to Yemen 1950s, it was punishment, when Somalis voted for Italian transition over the British at the United Nation, the same scenario British did to Hawd region of Ogaden and NFD of Kenya.
Anyway, last Somali military government wanted to take the island by force, but Arab league interfered and convinced the Somali government to solve in a peaceful matter, The president of Sudan at the time Jacfar Numeyri close friend of Siyad Barre said at the meeting in Cairo “Arabs should not fight over land and Somalis have the right to live everywhere in the Arab world just like they live their home country” because at the time southern Yemen was much weaker than Somalia, the Somali government did not pursued military option.
Since then Socotra remained disputed territory Like Ogaden and NFD , but when the government of Somalia collapsed 1991 and the two Yemenis merged as one country, the new Yemeni government moved military men and their families in the island then Yemeni fishermen followed and settled heavily in the area, sometimes evicting original Somali inhabitants of the land.
Socotra waters have one of the largest Tuna fish in the world, but Somalia has about half a dozen of green beautiful islands that are far richer than Socotra between Kismaayo and Kenyan border, some are empty and others have small community of fishing Bajunis, Somalis acquired enough land due to their Nomadic movement, but they don’t have the Brains to live peace with one another and develop their vast lands Starting at the tip off Assab in Eriteria, bisecting Ethiopia and ending Isiolo in Central Kenya, technically they own one seventh of the land in the African continent.
However, due to the increased internal clan division of Somalis, last twenty years Somalis were losing lands on the Oromo front, for example towns like Dire Dawa, Negeyle and Isiolo that once in history dominated by the Somali people have been over taken by the Oromo.