The foiled terrorist attempt to blow up a mosque in Hargeysa and the targeting of the police in Las Anod is clear evidence of the extent to which Somaliland’s enemies are willing to go in order to harm Somaliland and its people. The police stand for law and order. Mosques cater to people’s spiritual order. The fact that the terrorists attacked the symbols of public order and spiritual order shows that their objective is to destroy any sense of order and to create chaos in Somaliland. The reason they are doing this is not hard to fathom: only chaos will allow them to spread their poisonous tentacles into Somaliland. But they have failed in their objective. Las Anod is still a peaceful part of Somaliland despite several terrorist attacks. Similarly Hargeysa is still the peaceful capital of Somaliland. That does not mean however that the terrorist will not try again. Actually, it is very likely that they will try even harder as Somaliland’s presidential election draws closer. After all, the holding of a peaceful election will reinforce the message that there is a stable political order in Somaliland, and that message goes counter to the image that they want to create about Somaliland. Furthermore, the very idea of a democratic election is threatening to terrorists because it means that people get to choose their own leaders instead of being lorded over by thugs with religious masks.
Given this situation it is incumbent on Somaliland’s government to take the necessary short term and long term steps to strengthen security in the country and to defeat the terrorists. This will require that Somaliland change from a defensive mentality into an offensive one. The first obvious move should be the pre-emptive dismantling of terrorist cells in Somaliland. The second move should be the infiltration of terrorists in Somaliland and in their headquarters in the south. For if the terrorists can succeed in establishing terrorist cells in Somaliland, there is no reason why Somaliland cannot penetrate the terrorists in Somaliland and in their southern headquarters.
















 

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