By: Yusuf M Hasan
HUDUN (Somalilandsun) – “Continued armed activities by militias aligned to Khatumo state are directly responsible for the destruction of our livelihoods”
This was the concurred outcome of a meeting by Hudun residents who had converged to discuss means of making a reversal on increasing poverty in the entire district of sool region.
The all-inclusive meeting that pooled its participants from Merchants, Traditional/religious /political leadership, civil servants and ordinary citizens attributed their deteriorating livelihoods to militias who support the secession of the eastern part of Sool region thus the formation of a state dubbed Khatumo.
According to the Hudun district education officer Mr. Hurre Hirad Liban armed confrontations between militias and the national army has forced many residents to escape and seek shelter in safer areas where they are hosted as Internally Displaced Persons-IDPs.
Said he, “The armed clashes induced movement out of Hudun has resulted in most schools in the district being closed for lack of students”
While migration is the main reason behind empty schools the education officer further informs that the few remaining pupils have been found to be deprived of perfect mental faculties as a result of living in daily fear of atrocities perpetrated on youths especially boys who refuse to join them.
On the commercial front, Khatumo militias have been credited with prevalent deterioration especially as pertains to decreasing consumers and a curfew imposed by the security forces in order to curtail night incursions and subsequent attacks on civilians and army units.
According to Businessman Farah Bile Ali the Khatumo Militias have to stop their mendacious activities of attacking innocent civilians who refuse to join them in untenable quest for a Khatumo state thus stop the fast downwards spiraling livelihoods in Hudun and other parts of Sool region.
The merchant of Hudun also attributes the poor economic conditions in the area to the now almost permanent night curfew imposed from dusk to dawn by security forces that are on an ever ending heightened alert for attacks by the militias.
While urging the militias to lay down arms and join ongoing peaceful reconciliation with the government as per the Hagaltosie fronted Buhodle Peace accord, and on failure to join the peace movement, Mr. Farah Bile Ali advised the secessionists to solely direct their attacks on the army thus save innocent noncombatant lives.
The meeting which declared a unanimous allegiance to the Republic of Somaliland appealed for the intervention of Resettlement and national Reconstruction minister Dr. Suleiman Isse Ahmed “Hagaltosie” in order to avail residents of Hudun similar benefits accrued by residents of other Sool region areas since the start of Buhodle peace accord implementation.
With residents of Hudun district turning their backs on the Khatumoist’s coupled with the defection of five senior militia commanders, continued routing by national army and withdrawal of funding by former paymaster Abdirahman Farole, the president of Puntland, complete annihilation is the only option for the secessionists who refuse to join the Hagaltosie peace process.
Worthy of mentioning is that while the residents of Hudun, Taleeh and other areas of Sool region continue to suffer from ongoing militia skirmishes with the national army the chief honcho and architect of Khatumo secession Ali Khalif Galayd is enjoy the perks of his status as member of Somalia parliament.
Residents who say that little has been heard lately from Mr. Galayd whom they accusing of having thrown them to the wolves as he enjoys a kingly life not only in Mogadishu but in his other several residents in major Western capitals where he trots f regularly soliciting Diaspora funds for his dream Khatumo project that are believed as the source of the ostentatious lifestyle.
The truth and irony is that the disappearance of the millions of dollars that neither reach the militias fighting his Khatumo war nor the residents of the areas he has denied public and donor services will ultimately be the undoing of the Rebel in Chief Galayd and his pet Khatumo state project.
The Khatumo project which was initiated early 2012 as an Ali Khalif Galayd bargaining chip at the Somalia conferences held in London and Istanbul respectively has turned white elephant as the Khatumoist’s failed to achieve or partake in the two conferences.
