Somalia and Somali Land in review

Although the cancellation averted a civil war, it was the tropical cyclone that smashed Puntland's coast in November and killed scores of people and had devastated the livelihoods of other hundreds that united the people again.

The year ended with clan-nomination of Puntland's new 65-member strong parliament which is due to elect a new President on 8th January. The system of clan nomination of representatives which took place in Mogadishu earlier and now in Puntland, falls short of Somaliland's experiment of a direct elected parliament.

Women's continued plight

Somaliastill remained a black hole for women's rights. Rape and violence against women continued unabated to the extent that Amnesty International described it as an "ongoing epidemic". The report cites that perpetrators of such heinous crimes against women included government security officials, armed groups and members of AMISOM. The government's inability to halt the spiraling rate of rape and violence against women and its appalling actions sometimes of incarcerating the victim instead of the criminal makes a mockery of its otherwise commendable gesture of appointing women to high political and bureaucratic posts such as the deputy prime minister/foreign minister and the Central Bank governor as an apparent cosmetic action aimed at appeasing donor countries.

Press freedom also continued to bleed heavily in 2013 as Somalia retained its notorious position as one of the most dangerous places for media people to work. It remained in the rank of the five worst countries in the world for press freedom as per the 2013 report of Reporters without Borders.

Going to 2014, it has become obvious that the Somali people have the resilience to rebuild the country but only if Mahmoud's government liberates them from the grip and fear of Al Shabab and provides them with badly needed justice and a clean fiscal management.

Somaliland in crisis

If one attached a name to 2013 in Somaliland it could be called the Year of Roads. A number of initiatives were taken to mobilize the nation to rehabilitate its old roads and build new ones. Most of the projects were people-based although the government also contributed handsomely to them. The plan to build the Buora-Erigavo road, the longest road in the country with the most dangerous terrain, is indeed a highly ambitious and commendable endeavor.

The year 2013, however, started with the country reeling from the aftermath of badly handled municipal elections. Sporadic peaceful demonstrations, police brutality, and heavy handedness against the press have been the main spotlights.

Rape against women reached an unprecedented level as the Ministry of Health reported that 104 rape cases occurred during 2013. What made the situation even worse was that a number of the women were gang raped with impunity.

The political situation was dominated by the wrangling between the government and the opposition about the possibility of holding a national debate to evaluate the status of Somaliland after more 20 years since Hargeisa declared its unilateral secession from Somalia.

The government and the opposition may have different motives for either rejecting or accepting the debate, but one can feel that the unspoken agenda behind the debate is to discuss nothing but the viability of Somaliland's secession. With thousands of youth graduating every year from the mushrooming universities in the country and the non-existence of employment opportunities for them, and with the majority of the population relying on remittances for their livelihood, there is a great economic crisis in the offing. And also with the improving situation in Mogadishu and the international community's recognition of the federal government and the sovereignty of a united Somalia as a whole, Hargeisa found itself in the doldrums of a self-imposed political isolation.

The problems we saw on the surface in Somaliland in 2013 such as the deepening divide between the people on tribal lines, the water shortage in Hargeisa and elsewhere, the rampant unemployment, the government's failure to attract foreign investment and its inability to provide relief assistance to victims of natural disasters such as droughts and rains in far-flung areas of the country, its lack of strategy and clarity of vision in dealing with Somalia as well as its erratic actions regarding the banning of United Nations flights at its airports and its prohibition of its citizens from using Somali passports without offering an alternative, all these problems are just obvious signs of a chronic economic, social, cultural, and political crisis that need an immediate remedy before it is too late. The much talked about debate is therefore not only necessary but timely to extricate Somaliland from its current untenable situation.