|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Qatar, Somalia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States are worried about fighting around a disputed town in Somalia’s northern breakaway region of Somaliland, where at least 34 people died in fighting in early February.
Since the end of last year, tensions have been rising between Somaliland and local clan forces in Lascanood. Heavy fighting has broken out around the town, which sits on a key trade route.
In a joint statement released by the US State Department on Tuesday, the six countries said, “The partners expressed concern about the ongoing conflict in and around Lascanood and called on all parties to respect the ceasefire, de-escalate, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and engage in constructive and peaceful dialogue.”
Early in February, fighting broke out around the town after elders in three Somaliland provinces, including Sool Province, where Lascanood is located, said they wanted to join Somalia and promised to support Somalia’s federal government.
Somaliland, a region with about 4.5 million people, broke away from Somalia in 1991 and has been pretty stable since then.
But Somaliland’s efforts to become a state have not been recognised, leaving it poor and alone on the international stage, even though it prints its own money, makes its own passports, and chooses its own government.
The government of Somaliland called for a stop to the fighting on February 10, but both sides said the other was breaking the agreement.
Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, who is in charge of Lascanood’s main hospital, told the AFP news agency by phone last week that the hospital had been bombed.
“They destroyed the hospital’s electricity system, oxygen system, blood bank, human resources office, and other parts of the building,” he told reporters.
Somaliland denied having anything to do with the attacks on hospitals and schools in Lascanood that were covered by affiliated media.
Last week, the UN said that the fighting had forced more than 185,000 people to leave their homes and that aid workers were struggling to help because they didn’t have enough money.