To start let me say that the people of Somaliland were horrified with the interior minister’s decision to bar entry into Somaliland to fellow Somalis escaping the war in Yemen. This was a decision taken by some idiots in the government, and had nothing to do with the public.
Two things stand out to me from this debacle. Firstly, Somaliland politicians have been exposed for their shortsightedness and horrible understanding of public relations (PR). When you watch the infamous video of the women and children being left on the ship while the Yemenis are let off and received, u have two Somaliland officials making statements that are so cringe worthy and so bizarre that you’d think they were intentionally trying to sabotage Somaliland’s reputation. The fact that the Interior Minister, who made the fateful decision on which those officials were acting, did not realize that this would cause severe backlash and tarnish the good name of the people of Somaliland shows that the man has an extremely low IQ and is not fit to be in such a position. Also, after the incident and the predictable blowback, we had very few politicians, wadaads, traditional leaders or even the general public making statements condemning the decision on mainstream Somali media outlets. But on the Somaliland websites on the other hand you have countless submissions from furious Somalilanders, and also some videos of elders and politicians condemning what took place. Isaaqs have no understanding of crisis management…why the hell would u submit your views to a Somaliland media outlet when your target audience is the wider community of Somalis? Compare that to Puntland, whose politicians and wadaads are media savvy PR experts, who have had a field day with Somaliland’s blunder. If Somaliland had even a fraction of their propaganda and PR abilities we could have salvaged the situation easily.
The other thing that stood out to me was how extreme the blowback has been from other Somalis even though the decision was reversed and president Siilaanyo even visited the Somali IDPs (or refugees, depending on your stance) in Berbera. I’ve found that many Somalis are using the pain of those mothers and children on the ship to score cheap points against their traditional enemy; the Isaaq. Many on social media and other outlets are saying this day will live in infamy and will forever be etched in the collective memory of Somalis, thus permanently besmirching the good name of Isaaqs. Some suggested that we be considered the new midgaans, and called for our expulsion from other regions of Somalia. To be honest, these reactions are way out of proportion to what occurred in Berbera. Those women and children were just kept on the ship for two hours and the decision was quickly reversed after the people of Berbera put extreme pressure on the port authorities. Why are people assuming that Isaaqs were in agreement with their government on this? Also, why are people forgetting how generous Somaliland has been to southerners for decades now? A plane full of Somalis deported by Saudi Arabia landed in Gaalkacyo in 2007, and Puntland authorities let in the Daaroods and refused to accept the rest. Somaliland allowed the plane to land in Hargaysa and took in all of those people. The only difference was Puntlanders weren’t stupid enough to have this filmed and didn’t brag about it on the media like brain-dead Somaliland politicians. Somaliland has sent close to a million dollars collected by the poor population to Xamar during the drought and famine of 2012. Somaliland is home to hundreds of thousands of fellow Somalis from the south who fled war and hardship, and they are treated with respect and dignity in Hargaysa, Burco, Borame etc. Honestly, fellow Somalis need to take a chill pill and realize that we were also hurt by what happened and that the situation has now been rectified.
