One of the most prominent traditional leaders of the Republic of Somaliland, Garad Jama Garad Ismail, speaking at the second day of mediation processes between two close clans in the El Afwein area of Sanaag region, proposed that the Somaliland government stay out of the process and let religious clerics and traditional leaders get down to the issue on hand on their own.
The leader, although not blaming the government for any wrong-doing, obviously feared that one or the other of the clans may not wholly welcome the presence of politicians in a process that customarily worked best without them.
Speaking to the warring clans that forfeited more than two dozen lives thus far, the Garad said: “You have peace..peace that has become the envy of a volatile region and especially among other Somalis, in other areas that have yet to taste the sweet, savory taste of a strong peace. I ask you to safeguard that peace with your lives. I ask you to hold it with both hands and do not waste it on issues that can be resolved turning your backs on the blessing you have that is peace”.
“You are a son and his uncle, a son and a mother You are in-laws, cousins, and brothers,” he continued to say. “You are more related to one another than the ancestral relations that bind you to Garhajjis and Habr Je’lo”.
The Garad asked the two sides to heed their advice, obey their mediation and resolve outstanding issues thinking of the future rather than of a painful past.
The Garad revealed that the mediation committee, chaired by Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Ali Jowhar, asked the government to secure the safety of the area and continue to patrol the troubled area but to stay out of the actual dialogue between the two sides.
“We exonerate the government of any blame on this issue. We are distressed by negative media coverage linking it, on occasion, to the hostilities. That is why we wish not to give any side, anybody any excuse to back peddle from a lasting resolution,” he said.
Garad Jama pointed out that his proposal, concurred by the Committee, was only to continue established mediation and reconciliation mechanisms that traditional leaders always took the lead in order to maintain unmarred objectivity.
The Garad commended the role the Somaliland government played in containing cataclysmic discords such as this one as it did others before it.
Garad Jama is a member of a voluntary Mediation Committee from all over Somaliland, listed below, tasked to strike lasting peace between the warring relatives.
El Afwein Mediation Committee Members
- Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Ali Jawhar Awdal
- Sheikh Mohamoud Aw Suufi Muhumad Hargeisa
- Sheikh Mohamed Sh. Omar Dirir Hargeisa
- Sheikh Ismail Abdi Hurre Hargeisa
- Sheikh Osman Ali Hussein Hargeisa
- Sultan Abdirahman Jama Dhawal Awdal
- Garad Jama Garad Ismail Sool
- Sultan Abdullahi Abdi Koore Sanaag Bari
- Sultan Sayid Sh. Jama Warsame Togdheer
- Sheikh Abdullahi Hassan Hashi ‘Berberawi’ Sahil
- Sheikh Abdirahman Musa Tubeec Awdal
- Sheikh Abdinassir Haji Mohamed Ali Sool
- Sheikh Adan Abdi Hussein Sool
- Sheikh Yussuf Haibe Ibrahim Sool
- Sheikh Ahmed Sh. Omar Hassan Buuhoodle
- Sheikh Osman Hassan Ainan Awdal
- Chief Geesh Adan Bileh Selel
- Yassin Mohamed Ahmed (Secretariat)
A similar, more costly armed confrontation between the Qayad and Bah Hararsame clans, belonging to the same overall Dhulnahante clan as the Garad’s, and which peaked in 2015-2016, was settled using this time-tested method. If not for government troops that brought the matter under control by separating the sides and enforcing agreed upon settlement, more lives would have been certainly wasted.
Unlike Somalia, the Republic of Somaliland resolved more daunting, seemingly more irreconcilable issues in times past without calling for – or needing- external support.
