Northern Somali declared independence for their region on Saturday and said the leader of the Somali National Movement (SNM), Abdirahman Ahmed Ali, had been named president.
“The SNM central committee decided that the North should stand alone and form an independent government,” SNM radio said in a broadcast from the Northern regional capital Hargeisa monitored by British Broadcasting Corporation.
SNM representatives in Djibouti and London, contacted by telephone from Nairobi, said the proclaimed state would be called the Republic of Somaliland.
They said the decision restored the former colonial boundaries of 1960 that divided the British Somaliland protectorate from Italian Somaliland in the South.
“All Northern clans have come together and said they want independence from the South. They want to put the clock back to 1960,” said Osman Ahmed Hassan, an SNM representative in London.
“We are cutting ties between ex-Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian Administration and ex-British Somaliland,” he added.
He and other SNM representatives said the decision to declare independence was taken during a meeting earlier this month between leaders of the majority Isaaq clan and three minority Northern clans — Gadabursi, Dolbahanta, and Warsengeli.
The Isaaqs form the backbone of the SNM, founded 10 years ago to overthrow former President Siyad Barre who was ousted in late January by another rebel group.
The North was devastated in the fighting between Siyad Barre’s forces and SNM rebels. The big towns, Hargeisa and Burao, are in ruins.
SNM representatives said the new president of the proclaimed Northern state, Isaaq, was expected soon to appoint a prime minister and cabinet, with power shared between the clans.
“The (new) government will respect equal rights for all tribes,” SNM member Omar Elmi Dihoud said after returning to London from the meeting.
He said leaders also decided the proclaimed Somaliland should have a multi-party system and market economy.
The new government wanted the Northern Somalis who had fled the country’s civil war to return, he added. At least 100,000 Northern Somalis, mostly members of the Gadabursi clan, have crossed into Ethiopia since January but now face starvation in camps ill-prepared for the sudden influx.
Some 400,000, mainly Isaaqs, had earlier fled fighting between Siyad Barre the long-time dictator’s government, and the SNM.
The SNM took control of the whole Northern region when government troops fled or surrendered after Siyad Barre was overthrown.
It refused to recognize the interim government established in Mogadishu by the United Somali Congress (USC), another of the three major clan-based armed factions in Somalia.
Fighting between USC and the third rebel group, the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), has continued in the South.
SNM radio said on Friday the new separatist government wanted friendship with those in the South who had suffered at the hands of Siyad Barre the long-time dictator.
“We extend our hand of brotherhood to them. The separate government to be established by North is not opposed to those people struggling for rights of their region,” it said.
By Rowena Whelan
Original title: Somali Rebel Commander To Head Independent Northern State
