President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government has urged the breakaway state of Somaliland to reunite with mainland Somalia in a bid to foster much needed peace and development in the war-torn Horn of African nation.
Addressing hundreds of Mogadishu residents on Wednesday, President Ahmed praised Somaliland for her brotherly gesture in assisting famine victims in southern Somalia.
“Somalia can’t be independent from each other, and we are urging our brothers to forget the independence they are looking for and come to a roundtable discussion," he said.
The Somalian interim president said his TFG authorities were ready to enter into dialogue with Somaliland leaders in a bid to form a unified Somali nation.
But in a quick rejoinder, Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo strongly opposed the call, saying his administration was not ready to discuss the issue and that Somaliland was a self-declared independent state.
“Our self-declared independence will not be a topic of discussion. We are an independent state in Africa and we helped the famine victims in Somalia just as other countries did. That doesn’t mean we have stopped being a country of its own,” Silanyo said.
“We are telling this man.. that Somaliland has already reached a decision and no one can change that decision," Silanyo said referring to President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
"We call upon the Somaliland people to continue working for the betterment of this country and not to listen what is coming from the leaders of Somalia,” he added.
Somaliland Donate aid for Southern Somalia
Meanwhile, Somaliland has donated some US$700,000 to go towards assisting famine victims in southern Somalia and those in refugee camps in neighboring Kenya. The funds were donations collected from Somaliland leaders, members of parliament and the people of the self-declared state as a show of solidarity with the Somalis affected by the humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the region.
Two delegations from Somaliland arrived in Mogadishu and Dhadhab refugee camps and delivered the relief aid for the drought affected people in those areas.
The rare move was seen by many as a gesture aimed at repairing the strained diplomatic ties between the TFG and Somaliland administration.
Last week, a senior official from Somaliland toured Mogadishu making the first official visit by the administration of the breakway region in more than 20 years.
But speaking earlier, Somaliland vice-President, Abdirahman Saylici, downplayed the political significance saying the trip was only on humanitarian grounds.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but it remains unrecognized internationally. The region, however, runs its own affairs independently and has maintained relative peace and stability for 20 years, unlike other parts of Somalia.
