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HARGEISA, Somaliland, (AFP) - Three years ago, Ahmed Jama Ahmed returned from England purposely to trade in foreign currency in his native Somaliland.
But now he fears that widespread idleness may disrupt the fragile peace in the breakaway -- and internationally unrecognized -- republic and plunge it into another round of anarchy and bloodletting that had forced him into exile in Europe three years ago.
"The unemployment rate is more than 90 percent and such a huge number of idle people may undermine peace," Ahmed, a former resident of Manchester, told AFP in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa.
"It is good to invest at home," said Ahmed, 32, who has expanded his business to the poverty-stricken villages and shopping outposts neighbouring Hargeisa.
Of the 2.5 million people in Somaliland, at least 85 percent live on less than a dollar a day.
Ahmed, like several other small-scale traders in Somaliland, warned that the ever-increasing rate of joblessness in the tiny Gulf of Aden entity threatens to lure idlers back into gunslinging and crime, just like in neigbouring Somalia in the south.
"Something must be done to avert such a disturbing scenario," Fatuma Ismail said, herself a full-time currency dealer.
She explained that forex businesses along the pavements of Hargeisa have of late turned into rewarding ventures in a society that heavily relies on small-scale trade and livestock to eke out a living.
Fatuma, a mother of four, said security in Hargeisa's main Ba'adle street is favourable to traders, who deal mostly in Somaliland shillings.
"I don't fear anyone. I can display my currency in Ba'adle street," she told AFP, pointing at a locked metal box fastened with aluminium wires and a padlock, which was also full of bundles of foreign currency notes.
"People bring foreign currency notes -- US dollars, Saudi riyals, Ethiopian birr and United Arab Emiratess dirhams --- and I change them for a commission, " she said, explaining that the commission is her only source of livelihood.
"I get enough to feed my kids, pay for their education and care for my disabled husband," she said, but warned that "the rising number of people who have nothing to do might fracture the delicate peace that keeps Somalilanders together."
A small group of other traders voiced similar fears.
Somaliland unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in May 1991, five months after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.
As Somalia proper degenerated into anarchy and violence -- it still lacks any semblance of a working central government -- Somaliland, although in the absence of international recognition, has built up many of the institutions of statehood.
It now boasts a president, government, police force, penal code, currency and customs.
The police force has managed fairly well to keep law and order among Somalilanders despite shoddy equipment and the sturbborness of thieves and drunkards.
During a stroll through the bumpy streets of Hargeisa at dusk, AFP journalists were crossed by mean-looking but politely speaking police officers.
"Please sleep on time, we are looking for thieves and drunk drivers," one of them said, explaining that petty criminals lurked at night.
Aden Mohamed "Dool", who deals in Khat, mildly nacortic leaves chewed by the majority of the population, said idlers steal cash to buy Khat as soon as the cargo lands from Etiopia.
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