Details

ASD-Somaliland-Briefing-Note-FINAL herunterladen

The President of the Republic of Somaliland, His Excellency Muse Bihi Abdi gave an official address at the Africa Security Dialogue, held from the 3 to 5 June 2022. The dialogue was co-organised by the Brenthurst Foundation and KAS Political Dialogue for Sub-Saharan Africa (PolDiSSA) under the theme “Inside-Out or Outside-In? Building Peace and States in the Horn.” In the opening address, President Bihi shared on Somaliland’s journey to statehood, emphasizing the importance of peace as the foundation for state building, economic growth and development.

The official opening of the dialogue was followed by series of discussions among varied participants from academia, civil society organisations, African political parties, and Somaliland government officials. The discussants included Matt Bryden who explored differences between Somalia and Somaliland negotiation processes, while Nils Wörmer, head of KAS’ Department International Politics and Security Affairs joined Tendai Biti, Vassilis Gavalas and John Steenhuisen in exploring approaches to Developing a New Interface for Outsiders Actors.

The delegates visited several infrastructural developments, including, the port and airport of Berbera and Toj-Wajaale, which borders Somaliland and Ethiopia. As part of a $442 million investment by Dubai Ports World, the port of Berbera has seen an increase in its container capacity by five-fold to 500 000 annually and doubling the volume of general cargo to two million tons. Somaliland peace and democratization effort contributes to economic development and growth, according to H.E Muse Bihi Abdi, the private sector currently makes up “almost of 90% of our GDP.”

The President accredited Somaliland’s economic growth to the sustained focus on resolving issues at a community-level, enhancing social cohesion. He reinforced that “Somaliland's reconciliation and peace building process was largely home-grown, locally financed and organized as a result of initiatives taken by a diverse range of actors with broad support.”  The KAS PolDiSSA team also took this opportunity to meet with the leaders of the Committee of registration of political organisations and approval of political parties in Somaliland, to explore ways in which KAS could potentially support their work in deepening democracy in Somaliland.