Somaliland Forum

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) has been following the situation in the Horn of Africa and is deeply concerned at the dramatically deteriorating situation in Somalia and its capital Mogadishu, as widely reported by international media in the recent period. UNPO, as an organization promoting human rights and democracy among its Members worldwide, recognises that the current situation in Somalia demands the urgent attention of the world community.

The latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as it marks fifteen years since it proclaimed independence from Somalia. If Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) expands its authority across the shattered country, the dispute over Somaliland’s status is likely to become an ever-increasing source of friction. Somaliland has reacted angrily to the TFG’s calls for the UN arms embargo on Somalia to be lifted so it could arm itself and has threatened to increase its own military strength if this happens.

Somaliland’s 15-year quest for independence may turn violent if the African Union fails to address the breakaway Somali enclave’s case, including granting it observer status, a think-tank said on Wednesday.

Imagine a country within the greater Middle East ambit that has successfully made the transition to electoral democracy with multiparty municipal, presidential, and, most recently, parliamentary polls. Moreover, imagine that despite virtually all of its citizens being Sunni Muslims, the country’s national elections commission designates a progressive

The Right to Development is proclaimed in the Charter principles of the United Nations and in the Declaration on the Right to Development adopted by the General Assembly in 1986, which affirms that - “the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, cultural and political developments in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms are realized”.

HARGEISA, Somaliland, Mar 24 (UNHCR) – Ali Abdibihi is a bright, outgoing boy of 16 who is eager to practise his English with any visitor to the shantytown he calls home.
He lives in a traditional igloo-shaped home – a tukul – made of rags and flattened tin cans, with his blind father, his mother and …