It is difficult to talk about Somaliland’s foreign policy since after almost two decades, the country does not yet have a foreign policy establishment, institutions, or even a ministry of foreign affairs that is worth the name. Instead, what we have in Somaliland is a foreign policy that is managed by President Dahir Rayale Kahin and two of his closest aides: Abdillahi Mohammed Duale (the foreign minister) and Hussein Ali Duale a.k.a Awil (the finance minister). It is these three individuals who decide Somaliland’s relations with the rest of the world, and the results have been catastrophic.
Let us take for example Somaliland’s response to the piracy issue. The fact of the matter is that there was no response at all. While the whole world was, and still is, engaged with the issue, the three people in charge of Somaliland’s foreign policy stayed quiet and did not even bother to point out that Somaliland’s part of the Somali coast is free of piracy, let alone strengthening Somaliland’s position by presenting ideas on how Somaliland can contribute toward defeating piracy. The result is that the US and the European Union were able to use the piracy issue as a fig leaf and diverted the worldwide outrage regarding piracy into a financial bonanza for financing its proxies in Mogadishu: the African Union troops, and to a lesser extent, the Sheikh Sharif faction.
The second example is Somaliland’s relations with Djibouti. And here it is even more clear that the problem with the triumvirate (Rayale, Abdillahi Duale and Awil) that is running Somaliland’s foreign policy is not just a matter of their demonstrated incompetence or their unwillingness to build institutional mechanisms for decision-making, but rather a matter of deliberate and willful selling out of the country to Djibouti.
Somalilanders already know how far Djibouti is willing to go to sabotage Somaliland, how Djibouti is constantly trying to create a pro-Somalia fifth column in Somaliland, how it lobbies against Somaliland in the international arena, how it kicked out Somaliland’s representative in Djibouti, and how it has forced Somaliland’s livestock to pass through its port. The question is: what did the triumvirate do in return? Answer: They rewarded Djibouti by siding with it against Eritrea.
If taking Djibouti’s side brought some worthy positive change in Djibouti’s policies toward Somaliland, at least the triumvirate would have something tangible to point to, but up to now there is no such thing. The only thing that happened is that Djibouti’s government toned down its overt anti-Somaliland rhetoric and instead of confronting Somaliland head-on, it is following a more devious policy of bringing Somaliland under its aegis by controlling its economy and diplomacy. Again, what did the triumvirate do about this? Did they make every effort to protect the country from Djibouti’s stratagems?
Not at all. Instead, the same foreign minister (Abdillahi Duale) who did not speak up for Somaliland regarding piracy, the same foreign minister who is missing in action when the world debates Somali issues, the same foreign minister who has essentially ceded the international foreign media to the yahoos in Mogadishu, that same minister was quick to come to the defense of Djibouti’s dictator Ismail Omar Guelleh when some Somalilanders questioned that dictator’s policies toward Somaliland. Not only that, but Somaliland’s government-owned television gave plenty of air-time to a pro Ismail Omar Guelleh rally in Borama, something which offended a lot of Somalilanders. As if that were not enough, instead of insisting that the World Bank officials come to Somaliland for discussing Somaliland issues, Somaliland’s government consented to sending a large delegation to Djibouti to meet with the World Bank, thus continuing a policy of making Somaliland a subset of Djibouti.
Although Djibouti’s government these days refrains from making overt anti-Somaliland utterances, its policies remain fundamentally hostile to Somaliland. A recent example is the statement made by Djibouti’s Information Minister Ali Abdi Farah who said, “Eritrea would not have dared to attack Djibouti if Somalia were still militarily strong (Eritrea kumay dhiirateen inay Djibouti soo weerarto haddii ay awoodii milateri ee Somalia jirto)”. Mr Ali Abdi Farah knows that Djibouti has no borders with Somalia but shares a border with Somaliland. He knows that, unlike Somalia which exports piracy and terrorism to its neighbors, Somaliland has given Djibouti a safe and secure border. But apparently this is not enough, and the only thing that would satisfy Djibouti is a return of the bad old days when Somalia was “militarily strong” and for Somaliland to be wiped off the map. That is Djibouti’s policy. And that is why, despite all the song and dance by Somaliland’s government about how great are the Somaliland-Djibouti relations, Somaliland’s office in Djibouti has not been re-opened. It is the same policy that was spelled out clearly by Djibouti’s Ambassador to the US, Mr. Roble Olhaye, in an interview posted in AllAfrica.com:
“[Reporter]: Some voices in the northern, self-declared republic of Somaliland criticise your government's non-recognition of their country and say that this undermines its stability and, thus, contributes to instability throughout Somalia? Would a US-led campaign against terrorism change that, do you think, and bring you and the Somalilanders closer together?
[Roble Olhaye]: No. First of all, Somaliland is part of Somalia. It is a misnomer to use that name. Anyone can float any name in Somalia. You have Jubalanders and Puntlanders and others but there is no sufficient ground for that and these people are all part and parcel of Somalia. We want the Somali people to come to their senses and to lead a decent life and to be good neighbors and to reconstitute themselves. That's what we want. We have no axe to grind in a destabilized Somalia.” (AllAfrica.com, Jan.16, 2002)


 

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