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The reports coming from southern Somalia of thousands of people
starving, or on the brink of starvation, are grim indeed. It is only
right that Somaliland should do whatever it can to alleviate this
situation. Somaliland has already taken thousands of refugees from
Somalia, opened its ports for relief supplies, and has set up a
committee to coordinate aid to Somalia. But as Somaliland takes part in
this international humanitarian effort, it is important that Somaliland
should make clear to the international community, especially the US,
that they cannot use humanitarian relief as an excuse to deny
development aid to Somaliland. Why are we saying this? Because after two
decades of US policy toward Somaliland, the record is now clear that
despite all the sweet rhetoric with which it is wrapped, this policy, in
concrete terms, is to extend to Somalis the sort of assistance that
prevents mass starvation but not much beyond that. This is not to
belittle the importance of humanitarian assistance or show ingratitude
but to make the point that there is something wrong with a policy that
says Somalis can only qualify for humanitarian assistance even when
their most urgent need is for development assistance, rather than
humanitarian assistance, as is the case in Somaliland.
The worst culprit in this regard which for two decades now has been
using humanitarian assistance as an alibi is the US. In his testimony
before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Assistant
Secretary Don Yamamoto, summed up the extent of US assistance to
Somaliland this way: “in Somaliland, our funding was used to build
collaborative and strategic partnerships between government
institutions, private sector and civil society that then worked jointly
to identify priorities for a small grants program. We are also providing
technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance to improve fiscal
transparency.”
So, after twenty years, US assistance is still limited to small grants
and advising the ministry of finance. This is not all either, for even
in the area of security, the US has shown an almost total disregard for
Somaliland’s interests. How so? All one has to do is look at the
recently released Pentagon's Terror Aid Funding Package, which does not
mention any assistance to Somaliland but points out that the US plans to
build the armies of Uganda and Burundi to the point of providing them
with drones to fight terrorism in Mogadishu.
Another indication of US disregard for Somaliland’s interest is that
successive Somaliland governments, and even some American diplomats,
such as former Ambassador to Ethiopia, David Shinn, had suggested to the
US that it open a liaison office in Somaliland but the US government did
not comply with that request.
The question then becomes why is this happening? The answer to this, in
a nutshell, is because the US has probably calculated that Somaliland
has no alternative but to accept whatever shabby treatment it gets from
the US. In other words, the reason the US is pouring millions of dollars
into the armies of Uganda and Burundi is because if it did not do so,
the Burundians and Ugandans will not fight al-Shabaab, whereas
Somaliland will always deny al-Shabaab a foothold in their territory. It
is this sort of ruthless calculation that drove Pakistan, despite
receiving substantial US assistance, to begin to look for leverage in
its relations with the US by warming up to Iran, Russia and China.
President Sillanyo’s visit to China is a welcome step in that direction.
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