President Musa Bihi Abdi of the Republic of Somaliland met with two different delegations at his office at the Presidential Palace, Wednesday.
One of them was led by the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Adam Abdel Moula.
According to a statement the Presidency communications office posted on its official Facebook page, the two sides discussed a number of salient issues revolving around stronger cooperation between the UN and its organizations, on the one side, and the Republic of Somaliland, on the other.
“Among issues raised at the meeting were bilateral relations between the UN and the republic of Somaliland which, also, covered ongoing programs implemented under UN support auspices, the drought situation, what plans had Somaliland put in motion to combat and how, in particular, the UN would partake in the effort,” the statement said.
The statement added that President Bihi asked the visiting delegation to align programs to the pillars outlined by the third National Development Plan (NDPIII).
The President, the statement added, asked the UN to scale up its Somaliland programs paying special attention to the Eastern regions of Sool, Sanaag, and Togdheer.
The delegation has not yet released its view of the meeting.
The United Nations office in Somalia, UNSOM, is often criticized for completely bowing to Villa Somalia’s pressure when it comes to programs relating to Somaliland. A case in hand is Somalia’s stringent insistence that aid destined for Somaliland must first pass its scrutiny to be funneled down in accordance with its plans and calendar.
Besides Abdelmoula, the UN side who met with the President included the Head of OCHA Makiha Kimura, Simone Strachan, Head of the UN Somaliland office, Sabine Corrinna Friedrich, Mustafe Khayre, and Abdi Askar.
His Excellency the President, also, received at his office, Wednesday, another large delegation representing the European Union, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom. The delegation concluded the first leg of their fact-gathering mission end of last month.
Again, dominant among topics explored were the drought situation, developmental programs, NDP III, and the political landscape all of whom, according to official sources, the meeting sides were on similar tangents.
The international delegations’ visit comes at a time reports of people dying of thirst in eastern regions are surfacing.
Widespread inflation affecting direly affecting living standards, driving a great number of households to adopt desperate measures to survive is presently bringing the only Horn of Africa democracy to its knees.
The situation – like many of similar nature before it, according to analysts is further exacerbated by the unique status quo of Somaliland which still remains unrecognized and held to ransom by Somalia for over three, unexplained decades of international obduracy.
The old lady below has never begged before. She said in a statement that rocked the nation that she and many more like her were driven out to the streets by hunger.
Soon after, social media users bombarded the government with a lackluster attitude to a disturbingly alarming situation that has all the hallmarks of sinking further into untenable depths.
Calls for the resignation of government ministers flooded Facebook and Twitter. Mohamed Hassan Sachin, Minister for Trade, particularly under a heavy barrage.
Capitalizing on the development, opposition parties, especially Waddani, opened their purse strings but on camera. The Presidential candidate for the party, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdulahi ‘Irro’, sought out, Wednesday, and found the old lady whose story dominated social media last evening on something that looked like a ‘picture-with-me’ photo-op.
