By: Mo Ali
Somalilandsun – Somaliland and Somalia will cooperate on security issues according to local officials. The two countries will particularly cooperate on issues of preventing piracy as well as extremism and the prevention of Al Shabaab suicide attacks.
Somaliland and Somalia have earlier agreed on working together in controlling their airspace with Hargeisa to be the centre of operations.
Other areas where both Somaliland and Somalia cooperate include the issuance of biometric Somali passports in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland for the yearly pilgrimage purposes. The passports are collected at secret locations in Hargeisa and cost 200 Dollars each. It is then sent to an office in Somalia where the passports are issued and sent back to Hargeisa. This is mainly done because Somalilanders do not accept the biometric Somali passports introduced by the late Abdilahi Yusuf of Somalia during his term as a president although the green passport of the Siad Barre regime is still available in Somaliland open market for a small price of 25 to 40 US dollars.
The emergence of the recent cooperation between the two states is a positive step towards the right direction as long as Somalia respects Somaliland sovereignty and ceases its claim of Somaliland as part of Somalia.
Somaliland hopes to gain international recognition very soon after the country has carried out two free and fair presidential elections , one parliamentary election and two municipal elections.
The country has its own flag, its own currency, banks, passport, police and military force.
Somaliland broke away from Somalia in May 18, 1991 after a bloody civil war against the dictatorship of the socialist regime of Siad Barre.
The writer Mo Ali is a UK based development worker and the editor of www.medeshivalley
