The President of the breakaway region of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, departed for Djibouti on Thursday, where he will meet with Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to continue talks between Somalia and Somaliland.
A press release from the Presidency of Somaliland stated, “The purpose of the President’s delegation is to continue the dialogue between Somaliland and Somalia, which will start at the level of Presidents.”
Despite ongoing talks between Somaliland and Somalia over the past ten years, concrete results have yet to be achieved thus far. Djibouti’s President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has extended multiple invitations to the two leaders to continue discussions.
The upcoming meeting between President Mohamud and Muse Bihi will include ministers from both Somalia and Somaliland, as well as Abdikarin Hussein Guled, the envoy of the President of Somalia for the talks between Somalia and Somaliland.
Somaliland declared autonomy from Somalia in 1991 but has not gained widespread international recognition for independence.
In September, the breakaway region of Somaliland said it had no plans to discuss unity with Somalia, appearing to contradict Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who said he would act as a “unification mediator” between the two.
However, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is travelling to Djibouti two days after holding a closed-door meeting with several high-level politicians from his Hawiye clan in Mogadishu to discuss the country’s political issues, focusing on the amendment of the constitution.
Former President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre, lawmaker Abdirahman Abdishakur, MP Abdikhqadir Osoble and President Mohamud agreed to reinstate the Puntland regional state to the National Consultative Council (NCC) forum and to amend the constitution following the process outlined in chapter 15 of the transitional constitution.
Reports suggest that the two sides reached a preliminary understanding on critical issues, although no official statement was released after the meeting. Political analysts believe that in the absence of Puntland and Somaliland, it is impossible to change the country’s constitution; however, it is not clear that constitutional issues will be part of the discussions between the two presidents.
In May of last year, the National Consultative Council (NCC), comprising federal leaders such as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama, along with four regional leaders and the Mayor of Mogadishu, agreed to introduce direct elections as early as next year and unify the election schedules. They also endorsed the establishment of a presidential system for the country.
Local council elections are set to take place on June 30 of next year, followed by regional parliamentary and regional leadership elections on November 30 of the same year. The leaders had agreed that only two political parties would compete for power in the country. It’s worth noting that the current law on political parties does not limit the number of political parties.
