Security cooperation in good shape with Silanyo

Ethiopia: Somaliland to round up Ethiopian exiles and deport

Security cooperation in good shape with Silanyo

Source: Indian Ocean Newsletter

After being a little strained under Somaliland's previous home affairs minister, security cooperation between Hargeisa and Addis Ababa is now in going strong.

The very same day Somaliland's new Minister for Home Affairs Mohamed Nour Arale known as Duur (ION 1316) took up his functions on 1 September in Hargeisa, replacing Mohamed Abdi Gabose, President Ahmed Mohamed Mahamoud known as Silanyo received a letter from the Ethiopian government. Addis Ababa wanted 500 Ethiopians who had fled to Somaliland for political reasons to be expelled and sent back to their country. A significant number of them are Oromowhom the Ethiopian authorities accuse by name of being linked to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) or other opposition organisations.

Gabose had previously resisted certain Ethiopian security requirements (ION 1315), but President Silanyo and the new home affairs minister did not have the same scruples. On 4 September, the Deputy Home Affairs Minister Osman Garad Sofe announced in Hargeisa that Somaliland would expel within a month all illegal immigrants to their country of origin. At the same time Mohamed Nour Arale ordered his police service, together with intelligence officers, to round up the Ethiopian exiles Addis Ababa wanted. Around 300 of are believed to have already been captured and are awaiting deportation.