Somalia working to ‘stop violence’ amid Somaliland tension

Doha, Qatar – Somalia is working closely to restore peace in its northern breakaway region of Somaliland amid heightening tensions between the region’s authorities and local clan forces, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Al Jazeera.

“We believe that unity is the only solution… but we don’t want this unity through violence, which makes matters worse,” Mohamud told Al Jazeera on Monday.

Violence erupted after leaders of the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn provinces of Somaliland – which claimed independence from Somalia in 1991 – announced their intention to rejoin Somalia.

Fighting broke out last month around the town of Lascanood in Sool, killing at least 80 people and displacing more than 185,000, according to the UN.

“We’ve been advocating for the last couple of weeks on how we can first stop the violence and then open a space for dialogue,” Mohamud said in a wide-ranging interview in which he talked about the state’s fight against the al-Shabab armed group, a sweeping drought in the country and gender violence.

‘All-out war’ against al-Shabab
In August last year, a few months after being re-elected for a second time, Mohamud declared an “all-out war” against al-Shabab, which has been waging a rebellion against the government since 2007.

“So many people have tried to stop this via peaceful means. Now the Somali government decided to solve this through an all-out war,” he said.

“There’s no other option other than to take this terrorist group to a level where it cannot threaten the stability of the country,” Mohamud said, adding that the ultimate aim was to create the right environment for political inclusion, and attract foreign investment as well as Somalis to return to the country.

With support from the US army, African Union (AU) forces and local assistance, Somalia’s army was able to regain swaths of territory from the armed group since launching its offensive last year.

In January this year, government-led forces recaptured the port town of Harardhere, an al-Shabab stronghold on the Indian Ocean, marking one of the most significant victories of the offensive.