By: Yusuf M Hasan
BUHOODLE (Somalilandsun) – 15 Somaliland citizens are currently being held prisoners in Jigjiga, the capital of the Zone 5 Somali regional administration of Ethiopia,
The abductions took place in the villages of Oodale and Qorilugud and in Buhoodle and Ainabo Districts in the East of Somaliland.
The incursion deep into Somaliland territory by heavily armed units of the notorious Liyuu police from Ethiopia’s zone 5’s ensued with 10 citizens abducted in Oodale and the remaining 5 in Qorilugud.
While residents of the two areas have been engulfed in some controversies pertaining to the sharing of grazing fields it is not yet clear what authority the Jigjiga based Somali utilized nor subsequent fate of the abductees.
Despite the intervention of the Federal Government of Ethiopia that deterred such incursions by the Zone 5 police into Somaliland the Jigjiga administration seems to have other thoughts.
Just the other day, young girls in Buhoodle town foiled an attempt to seize their Religious teacher by the Liyuu Police.
The irony of the issues is that the intensified activities by an armed paramilitary force into another country without permission as per international norms has yet to elicit comment from either Somaliland or Ethiopia Federal Authorities.
The resurgent of incursions by Liyuu Police comes after a hiatus of two years that was enforced by federal troops at the two countries border placed by the Federal Government of Ethiopia.
Queried on the issue of Liyuu Police activities in Somaliland the Ethiopian resident Diplomat in Hargeisa, Brigadier General Berhe Tesfaye stated, “It is only the Ethiopian Federal Government that has the Constitutional mandate to deal with cross-border security“
It is therefore bogging to understand how the Liyuu Police unit managed to evade detection by Somaliland security forces but more so how it, Liyuu police, successfully circumvented, to and fro Somaliland, the Ethiopian Federal Army units manning the border, not to mention the silence, unless there is a tripartite complicity spanning the Hargeisa, Addis Ababa and Jigjiga.
In the meantime only God can save the people of Eastern parts of Somaliland living in areas bordering Ethiopia of the Somali administration in Jigjiga.
On other hand a large contingent of traditional leaders representing the warring Habrjeylo and Dulbahante clans have managed to quell skirmishes that had seen tare three people die.
