Somaliland accuses Somalia backing anti UAE military base demonstrations

Some members from Somaliland’s Community in London have protested on Thursday against the United Arab Emirates military base in Berbera which has been approved by the Parliament, the opposition party has also endorsed it but the government accused that protest was backed by the Somalia government.

Somaliland government has accepted a request from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart having a military base in the Redsea coastal town of Berbera. On 12th February 2017, Somaliland’s President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo asked the houses of the Parliament in a joint session to ratify the agreement allowing the base. During the session, government ministers provided 15 main points highlighting the scope and the objective of the agreement. The controversial points, however, has been ratified by the houses of the Parliament.

Since its ratification, some of the Somaliland populations, politicians, scholars and also the opposition parties has been reacting with rejection to that deal. Some members of the Somaliland’s Community in London have gathered in front of the UAE embassy in London on Thursday having signs showing their reaction against the deal. The chairman of Waddani Opposition Party and the Parliament Speaker, Mohamed Abdillahi Irro has endorsed the demonstration in press conference held in Hargeisa today, thursday.

The Information Minister Abdillahi Osman, on the other hand, has accused the demonstration is backing by the government of Somalia and allegedly ‘The demonstrators are with the Unionist those believe Somaliland is a part of Somalia.’ He added that the agreement has a huge benefit for the country.

According to the Lawyers, although the agreement is not yet signed but legally the government must bring the signed agreement back to the House of Representatives for actual ratification. The government of Somaliland stated that it does not need to bring it, since they believe the main concept of the agreement has been already ratified.

SOURCE:Tusaale Multimedia Network