Somaliland: Somaliland escalates war on Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) Somali unification movement
Attacks by Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia whose sovereignty claim has no international recognition, have caused over 1,500 injuries since February 6 in Las Anod, which is at the heart of the movement to reunify the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) with Somalia
Somaliland is a self-proclaimed republic, with no international recognition, formed in 1991 as a separatist state, breaking away from Somalia’s northwestern region after the civil war. It spans over a strip of land of almost 285,000 square kilometers along the south of the Gulf of Aden – a crucial shipping route, including for petroleum, connecting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. It is now facing what many observers regard as an existential threat as the unionist movement for reunification with Somalia spreads across Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC), which is over a third of what Somaliland regards as its territory.
The protests calling for reunification began in December 2022 in the city of Las Anod, where a declaration was passed in February, proclaiming SSC as a part of Somalia and deeming the presence of Somaliland administration illegal. Somaliland has since been shelling the city. To understand the extent of the damage to the city and its administration under war, Peoples Dispatch spoke to Dr. Jaama Mohamed Mursal from the Las Anod General Hospital, Garad Mukhtar, one of the 14 clan elders of SSC region, and Elham Garad, a Somali unionist activist who arrived in the city to volunteer earlier this week.
Casualties mounted in Las Anod as the troops of Somaliland – a separatist breakaway from Somalia with no international recognition of its claim to sovereignty – continued attempts to reoccupy the city at the heart of the unionist movement to reunite the region with Somalia.