Unity and dialogue key to Las Anod conflict, says Somalia leader
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Staff Reporter Garowe Online
- Posted On 08-03-2023, 08:07AM
MOGADISHU, Somalia - President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud insists that both wrangling parties in Las Anod city, the capital of Sool region should embrace unity of purpose if at all they are ready for a lasting solution to the current violence which has left dozens of people dead and thousands critically injured.
Medics from Las Anod blamed Somaliland forces of targeting medical facilities through shelling, noting that over 200 people have since been killed and thousands injured. Somaliland forces have been fighting with SSC-Khatumo forces in the region for the last four weeks, leaving behind catastrophic outcomes that could lead to humanitarian conflict.
But Hassan Sheikh now says he's keen to ensure peace and stability have been restored in the town. Locals want to be administered from Mogadishu instead of Hargeisa, an idea which has been vehemently opposed by thatiland, a region which claimed independence from Somalia in 1991.
“We believe that unity is the only solution… but we don’t want this unity through violence, which makes matters worse,” Mohamud told Al Jazeera on Monday.
The United Nations estimates that close to 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes, with both partirefusing to heed to calls for cessation of hostilities. Somaliland troops are still stationed outside the town even with intensified calls to have them withdraw.
“We’ve been advocating for the last couple of weeks on how we can first stop the violence and then open a space for dialogue,” Mohamud said in a wide-ranging interview in which he talked about the state’s fight against the al-Shabab armed group, a sweeping drought in the country and gender violence.
The president has previously insisted that Somaliland remains part of Somalia regardless of the current standoff, adding that he however, has no intention to use force on compelling the region to read the same script as Mogadishu. Somaliland has been running a parallel government for the last three decades.
GAROWE ONLINE
