BREAKING: Awdal State in Northern Somalia announced it is breaking away from Somaliland and supporting Somalia’s unity. A recently held convention in Ottawa, Canada, rejected the secessionist agenda and called on the Awdal soldiers to return to their home region in order to “liberate it as soon as possible.”
Ottawa, CANADA. By Yahya:
The Gadaboursi convention, which took place in Ottawa on Saturday and Sunday, saw the participation of a hundred people who gathered under the Adal Diaspora Alliance banner. The supreme leader of Awdal State, Ugaas Abdirashiid Ugaas Rooble, was also present and delivered the conference’s concluding remarks. The outcomes and decisions that the participants produced were published in a statement, which has the potential to seriously disrupt the security and political environment of Northern Somalia.
In one of the crucial points that will define Awdal’s future, the convention expressed its support for Somalia’s unity, rejecting the secession that Somaliland has pursued since 1991.
Moreover, the participants agreed on establishing the Awdal State Movement (ASM), which should “quickly implement the will of the people of Awdal to be independent in their political, economic, cultural and developmental destiny.”
The convention also announced the region’s complete withdrawal from “the agreements of the northern communities” with an immediate effect. The statement acknowledges that the people of Awdal must prepare for whatever this move will cost.
Call on soldiers to liberate Awdal
Notably, the meeting calls on “all the officers and soldiers of Awdal who are still in the tribal army [referring to the Somaliland army] to leave to the front areas as soon as possible and to go back to their region in order to liberate it as soon as possible.” This section indicates that the region is ready to protect its territory and chase away Somaliland’s troops, as the SSC forces did in Las Anod and Gooja’adde.
The call might also further weaken Somaliland’s army, which suffered a humiliating defeat on 25 August. The SSC forces captured at least 300 prisoners of war (POW), including a well-known commander, Faisal Abdi Botan. Experts and observers, including those within Somaliland, raised questions about whether the self-proclaimed state could even defend itself after such a significant loss of manpower and heavy weaponry.
Unionism on the rise
Awdal is currently an administrative region of the self-proclaimed Somaliland. The region consists of four districts, with its capital in Borama. Dir, Gadabursi and Issa clans inhabit the area.
The unionist appeal comes in the wake of Somaliland forces’ withdrawal from the Dhulbahante territories, which announced the establishment of the SSC-Khaatumo administration. The new SSC administration also has a unionist approach. It aims to become part of Somalia with the central government based in Mogadishu. Despite these clear intentions, the central Somali government has been conspicuously negligent towards the situation in Las Anod, which has been a subject of frequent Somaliland shelling and human rights abuses.
Moreover, the leaders of the so-called Ga’an Libaah movement in the Togdheer region also made unionist calls, further complicating the situation for the separatist Somaliland.
