Ethiopia’s military says Tigrayan forces have started handing over heavy weapons as part of the peace deal to end the two-year civil war.

Ethiopia’s federal defense force in a statement Wednesday confirmed Tigray forces have started handing over heavy weapons— the latest progress in line with a November peace deal.

The statement said the “first round” of weapons were transported on Tuesday in Agula camp, 36 kilometers from Tigray’s capital, Mekelle.

Ethiopian Army Commander Lieutenant Colonel Aleme Tadele said the arms transfer included tanks, rockets, and mortars.

The statement said observers from the African Union and various countries’ militaries were present to verify the transfer from the Tigray People’s Liberation Army.

The confirmation came after TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda early Wednesday tweeted news of the handover.

He said they “hope and expect this will go a long way in expediting the full implementation of the agreement.”

The AU-brokered peace deal, signed in South Africa, saw the two sides agree the TPLF would disarm in return for restoration of aid and services to Tigray and the withdrawal of foreign forces.

The deal came after two years of devastating war that saw Tigray largely cut off from the rest of the world, hundreds of thousands of people killed, and millions displaced.

The two sides have met a few times in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, to discuss implementing the deal.

Since December, Ethiopia has allowed humanitarian aid to enter Tigray and restored power, water, banking, and telecommunications to the region.

Witnesses say in late December Eritrean troops who fought on the side of federal forces withdrew from two cities in Tigray.

However, the TPLF accuses Eritrean troops of committing atrocities during the conflict and says they are still active in some areas of Tigray.

Rights groups say all sides in the conflict are guilty of rapes, torture, and extra-judicial killings that could amount to war crimes, and cite evidence of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayans.

While the rapid progress on implementing the peace deal has been welcomed internationally, it’s not yet clear what action, if any, will be taken to see justice for the victims.

 
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A judge on Tuesday ordered the release of a Senegalese journalist and prominent anti-government critic after more than two months in detention, his lawyers said.

Pape Ale Niang, head of the Dakar Matin online news site, was arrested on November 6 and charged with “divulging information likely to harm national defense.”

Widely followed in Senegal for his regular columns on current affairs, Niang was released on December 14 but sent back to prison a week later and had since been on a hunger strike in protest over his detention.

Lawyer Moussa Sarr told Agence France-Presse the temporary release order came with a strict ban on Niang commenting on the case as well as a travel ban.

He was “extremely strained” from a hunger strike launched in protest at his detention, the lawyer said, adding that he is still in hospital.

The journalist has been at Dakar’s main hospital since December 24, where doctors have voiced concern about his condition, according to a local press organization.

Another of his lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, said the case was “political” and Diang ought to end the hunger strike.

“He held out, it was very hard, but he was fighting for a principle and he has won,” the lawyer said.

The case against Niang arose after he wrote about rape charges faced by Senegal’s main opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko.

Niang was accused of describing confidential messages about security arrangements for Sonko’s questioning by investigators, according to trade unions.

His detention sparked a wave of criticism from the press, civil society groups and Senegal’s opposition, with many calling for his release.

The Coordination of Press Associations put out a statement praising the “victory” of the release order and called for cancellation of the “fantasy and political charges which earned him more than 60 days in prison.”

Senegal has a strong reputation for openness and press freedom in West Africa, but this status is in decline, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Its 2022 Press Freedom Index ranked Senegal 73rd out of 180 countries — a fall of 24 places compared with 2021.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says he’ll use his chairmanship of the BRICS group of leading emerging economies to focus on advancing African interests. The bloc — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is seen as an alternative to dominant Western economies.

South Africa has just taken over the BRICS chairmanship from China and will host the group’s annual summit this year — with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa promising more African countries will be invited to attend.

“We want to use this opportunity to advance the interests of our continent, and we will therefore through the BRICS summit be having an outreach process or moment, where we will invite other African countries to come and be part of the BRICS because we do want BRICS in whatever BRICS does to focus on helping to develop our continent,” said Ramaphosa.

“Our continent was pillaged and ravaged and exploited by other continents and we therefore want to build the solidarity in BRICS to advance the interests, of course initially of our own country, but also of the continent as a whole.”

Asked what form advocating for Africa might take, Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher at the Pretoria-based research organization the Institute for Global Dialogue, told VOA it would likely be focused on helping African countries gain greater access to the global economy.

He said BRICS is all about allowing the “voices of the marginalized to actually be heard” and said Africa wants to better the living standards of its people and create employment.

“The collective strength of the BRICS economy and the technological capability, market size, and other qualities that make BRICS a solid development partner for Africa is what South Africa will look to harness with the BRICS partners. I think that is what the president was referring to,” said Kubayi.

Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, of the South African Institute of International Affairs, said that trade would be a priority and there would be a focus on unlocking the potential of the recently formed African Continental Free Trade Area.

She noted that China, the world’s second-largest economy, is the continent’s single largest trade partner.

She said the summit is also about getting investment from external partners and sparking intra-continental trade.

“South Africa would want to advocate in the discussions on these issues with its other BRICS partners in terms of how we, we use the creation of a continental free trade area, not only to trade more with the external world, but primarily, which is what this initiative is really about, to trade, to create goods in the continent that we can trade within the continent,” she said.

Sidiropoulos said aside from trying to advance the economies of developing countries, BRICS is also about reforming the current multilateral system which “does not necessarily advance the interests of the global South.”

At the last BRICS summit, hosted virtually by Beijing, Ramaphosa took aim at the West, saying that during the COVID-19 pandemic rich nations did not adhere to “the principles of solidarity and cooperation when it comes to equitable access to vaccines.”

As well as an economic force, BRICS — which includes three democracies but also communist China and authoritarian Russia — is increasing a political force that positions itself as an alternative to the U.S.-led liberal world order.

Only Brazil voted against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations last year, while the other members abstained. South Africa, as the continent’s foremost democracy, was widely criticized for taking a neutral stance on the conflict.

And it looks like BRICS might soon expand. Saudi Arabia is reportedly interested in joining the bloc, as are Iran, Algeria and Argentina.
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China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang is starting his term with a weeklong trip to five African countries, the Foreign Ministry announced Monday. 

Qin, who until recently was ambassador to the United States, will visit Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt from January 9-16, spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily media briefing. In Egypt, Qin will also meet the secretary-general of the Arab League. 

The new foreign minister is following in the footsteps of his predecessors, who have for more than three decades started each year with a trip to Africa. 

“It shows that China attaches great importance to the traditional friendship with Africa and the development of China-Africa relations,” Wang said. 

The U.S. is battling China for influence in Africa, with President Joe Biden making an appeal to African leaders at a summit in Washington in December. China has become a major trading partner with the continent and investor in infrastructure and mining projects. 

Qin, 56, was appointed foreign minister December 30. He succeeded Wang Yi, 69, who has replaced Yang Jiechi as the government’s top foreign policy official. 

Wang’s new position has not been announced, but a recent article by him on the Foreign Ministry website described him as director of the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs office, the post that Yang held.  
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South African police are investigating allegations by the outgoing head of state-owned power company Eskom that he was poisoned.

Andre de Ruyter alleges someone put cyanide in his coffee a day after he tendered his resignation. De Ruyter has been criticized for failing to end widespread graft in the company that fueled the worst blackouts in South Africa’s history.

Debt-ridden Eskom says due to the police investigation, it cannot comment on de Ruyter’s claim that someone tried to poison him at his Johannesburg office on December 13.

The story broke over the weekend with de Ruyter telling energy analyst and editor of EE Business Intelligence Chris Yelland that after drinking the coffee, he became weak, dizzy and confused, and started vomiting.

De Ruyter went to a doctor and tests were conducted.

South Africa’s minister of public enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, says the alleged attempt on de Ruyter’s life will be thoroughly investigated and those responsible will be charged. 

Morne Malan, the head of communications at Solidarity, a union with 6,000 members at Eskom, believes the alleged poisoning was linked to de Ruyter’s fight against corruption.

“All the indications at the moment are that he was in fact poisoned based on the toxicology report,” Malan said. “From our understanding, normal cyanide levels for a human being would be around 15 milligrams per liter of blood whereas Andre de Ruyter’s was at over 40 milligrams per liter.”

De Ruyter submitted his resignation shortly after Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe criticized Eskom’s management, saying, “Eskom by not attending to load-shedding is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state.”

Malan says the union doesn’t believe Mantashe’s accusation because he says de Ruyter always put Eskom first and did his best.

Malan added that due to political interference in South Africa’s state-owned enterprises, it’s almost impossible for any CEO to conduct business independently.

“It’s terribly difficult to actually judge the extent to which he was effective,” Malan said. “There are certain things we can point to. We do believe he did a relatively good job at alleviating Eskom’s debt load. The fact of the matter is that load-shedding was significantly worse last year than ever before. We did have over 200 days of load-shedding in 2022.”

Across the country, rolling power cuts known as load-shedding were first implemented by Eskom around 2008 due to demand outstripping supply. In 2022, South Africa experienced blackouts for up to 10 hours a day at times.

Energy analysts blame corruption, crippling debt, lack of maintenance of aging coal-powered plants, and the inability to procure new plants and renewable energy sources in a timely manner as reasons for the demise of the once world-class power utility.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has refused to comment on the poisoning investigation, referring instead to a statement issued in December. It said it is overjoyed by de Ruyter’s resignation and called him the worst CEO in the history of Eskom.

Energy expert Ted Blom was also critical of de Ruyter.

“In terms of delivering the fix-up at Eskom, he grossly underperformed and he’s actually leaving Eskom in a far worse situation than what he inherited it,” Blom said.

He added that he doesn’t know anyone who would want to take the job at Eskom. 

“It certainly is not fixable by one or two people. If you are going to bring in a team to fix up Eskom it’s going to have to be in the form of a task force. They’re going to have to be independent and they’re going to have a mandate that is irrevocable for a period of time,” Blom said. “You can’t have chopping and changing every 18 months or every year like Eskom’s had in the past 15 years.”

De Ruyter, who officially started as CEO in January 2020, is expected to leave Eskom on March 31. 

 
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Cameroon’s second largest employer, the state-run Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), is calling for thousands of plantation workers who fled the country’s separatist conflict to return to work. About half the company’s 20,000 workers left more than four years ago over unpaid wages and after deadly and brutal attacks. The company last week said it was safe to return, but workers are skeptical and say it should first rebuild homes destroyed or damaged in the conflict.

The CDC said it wants thousands of workers back at banana, palm oil, and rubber plantations in the restive Southwest region. Managers of the state-run giant on Monday visited towns and villages in the region to meet with workers who fled unrest in 2018 and ask them to return.  

Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union President Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, who was part of the delegation, said the corporation has promised to pay back wages to those workers who return.  

“Most of them are doing mean (menial) jobs in many areas of this country, so we are calling them to come back,” he said. “Their security is being guaranteed by the state and we have seen in the last six months there is relative calm. For those who had wounds, we think that their wounds are healed, and the CDC management is taking care of them. Our members should come back to work.”

Cameroon’s military says it has chased the rebels from the plantations, which armed groups used for training camps.  

In 2018, the rebels ordered workers to leave the plantations and warned that those who refused would be attacked.  

Authorities say the armed groups chopped off fingers of scores of workers suspected of collaborating with the government and torched hundreds of homes, schools, and factories.

William Lekunja, a worker at a plantation in Meanja, said he escaped in 2018. He said he will only return if the company improves work and living conditions in villages damaged in the conflict.

“They cannot eat well because what they have is too meager,” he said. “Others who have gone there came back with testimonies. Their hospitals bills are paid by themselves, there is no good housing for them, no good water for them.”

Cameroon’s government says some of the company’s former workers are owed more than two years’ back pay. The company has vowed to pay back wages but says the conflict and exodus of workers led to a massive drop in production and sales.

The government says sales and revenue increased after about 2,000 workers returned in 2021 and 2022.

CDC general manager Franklin Ngoni Njie said if the remaining 8,000 workers return, the company’s sales will return to previous levels. 

He said they would then be able to afford paying back salaries and reconstructing destroyed buildings.

“The solution is getting back to work,” he said. “Working and making money, money to help pay wages.  To pay those who are working, just salaries alone, costs the corporation about 900 million francs.  It is difficult to get that amount of money, but that notwithstanding, we will try to do what must be done to continue to operate.”

Cameroon’s separatist conflict was sparked in 2016 when predominantly English-speaking western regions protested discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

Cameroon’s military responded with a crackdown and rebels took up arms claiming to defend the English-speaking minority.

The U.N. says the conflict has since left 3,500 people dead and 750,000 displaced.
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Kenyan police have arrested more suspects over the killing of LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba, whose mutilated body was found on a roadside stuffed in a metal trunk, media reports said Sunday.    

Rights campaigners have issued calls for heightened efforts to protect members of the LGBTQ community after Chiloba’s violent death in the Rift Valley of western Kenya.    

Police on Friday said they had arrested a freelance photographer said to be a longtime friend of the 25-year-old victim, a leading activist in the LGBTQ community in Kenya as well as a model and fashion designer.    

On Saturday another three suspects were detained for their alleged role in disposing of his remains, media reports said, quoting police officials.     

Chiloba’s body was discovered about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside the Rift Valley town of Eldoret after it was reportedly dumped from a moving car.    

The Star newspaper reported that a post-mortem would be carried out on Monday, while the family was preparing for a burial on Saturday.    

“He died a painful death,” an unidentified police officer based in Eldoret told the media last week. “They must have tortured him and then gouged out his eye. It appears he was strangled.”  

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said on Saturday he was “shaken” by Chiloba’s death.     

“Standing in solidarity with LGBTQ!+ activists around the world. Urgent need to redouble efforts for their protection,” he said on Twitter.    

His call was echoed by the African Union’s human rights commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso who issued a statement Saturday condemning Chiloba’s killing and saying it appeared it was “a result of hate.”    

Dersso urged Kenya to initiate a “transparent, thorough, and prompt investigation” into the murder and bring those responsible to justice.     

He also called on Kenya and other AU members to take measures to ensure that “all vulnerable members of society, including those who are or are perceived to be different from the mainstream members of society including on account of their sexual or gender identity, are guaranteed to live a life free from the threat of violent attacks.”      

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said Chiloba’s death followed the unsolved murders of several other rights advocates for sexual minorities, Sheila Lumumba, Erica Chandra and Joash Mosoti.     

“The continued targeting of those perceived to be different is worrying,” the state-run but independent rights watchdog said.    

“The National Police Service should step up efforts to ensure Kenyans feel safe and are not arbitrarily attacked or targeted for their perceived beliefs or associations,” it added.     

Amnesty International called for “speedy investigations into (Chiloba’s) brutal murder,” saying “no human life is worth less than another’s.” 
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Forty people were killed and 85 were injured when two buses crashed in a head-on collision overnight on an arterial road in Senegal’s central Kaffrine region, the government said on Sunday.

Images of the incident showed the completely mangled front end of a white bus, with blood-flecked seats, personal items and a shoe strewn around the tree-lined crash site.

Road accidents are common in Senegal, largely because of driver error, poor roads and decrepit vehicles, say experts, but the latest disaster has caused one of the heaviest losses of life from a single incident in recent years.

In a statement, the government announced three days of national mourning beginning Monday, with flags to be flown at half-mast throughout the country.

President Macky Sall will visit the crash site just outside of the village of Sikilo on Sunday, it said.

“In view of this tragedy, the head of state extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured,” the government said.

Public prosecutor, Cheikh Dieng, said in a statement that early investigations suggested a public passenger bus suffered a burst tire and swerved off course.

It then crashed “head-on with another bus coming in the opposite direction,” he said.

‘Tragic’

The statement said the incident happened around 0330 GMT.

It is “a tragic accident,” Kaffrine mayor Abdoulaye Saidu Sow, who is also the Minister of Urbanism, told AFP.

Speaking from Kaffrine, he said President Sall would be joined there by the prime minister and several other ministers on Sunday.

Opposition politician Ousmane Sonko announced on Twitter that he would postpone a scheduled fundraising program in light of the accident.

“We bow before the memory of the deceased, offer our very sincere condolences to their grieving loved ones and to all Senegalese and pray for the merciful rest of their souls as well as a speedy recovery for the injured,” he said.

Colonel Cheikh Fall, who heads operations for the National Fire Brigade, told AFP the victims were taken to a hospital and medical center in Kaffrine.

The wreckage has since been cleared and normal traffic has resumed on the road, he said.

The governor and local officials have visited the scene, he added.

In a tweet, President Sall said that after the period of national mourning finished, a government council will be held to “take firm measures on road safety.”

In October 2020, at least 16 people were killed and 15 more injured when a bus collided with a refrigerated lorry in western Senegal.

The bus, with a 60-seat capacity, was heading to Rosso near the border with Mauritania, the fire brigade said, adding that the number of people onboard was unknown.

Local media said at the time that the truck was hauling fish to Dakar.
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The Somali government and the al-Shabab militant group have each denied having peace talks.

The denial came Saturday after Abdulfatah Kasim Mohamud, a deputy defense minister and member of the parliament, said the militant group had requested talks with the government.

A senior government official later officially denied receiving a request from the militant group.

“We have not received any requests from the group,” National Security Adviser Hussein Sheikh Ali told Voice of America Somali. “The minister said he was misquoted.”

Ali said the Somali government’s position on al-Shabab has not changed.

“Our policy towards talks with Alshabab remains the same,” he wrote in a message via WhatsApp.

“We aren’t negotiating with them as a group. However, individuals who wish to leave the group will undergo a thorough process to defect and be eligible for government amnesty formally,” he added.

The militant group has also denied the existence of any talks with the Somali government. A website affiliated with al-Shabab said the deputy defense minister’s claim that the group requested talks is “baseless.”

“I can confirm that there aren’t and can be no talks between us,” a militant official told the website. The official was said to be from the group’s media department, but his name was not published.

The al-Shabab official further ruled out the possibility of talks with Villa Somalia, the seat of Somalia’s government.

In the past, the group has expressed distrust in opening dialogue with the Somali government.

In January 2018, the group’s official spokesperson, Ali Mohamud Rage, known as Ali Dhere, said dialogue is “more dangerous than the weapons of mass destruction.”

“We heard from the infidels and apostates repeatedly stating that they are open to talks with the mujahedeen,” he told al-Shabab’s radio Andalus. “This is how the infidels use dialogue, as an approach to misguide the Muslims and destroy Muslim causes.”

He said the aim was to divide (the Mujahedeen) into groups, “so that they can support the group they see as moderates.”

Saturday, the president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, appointed Abdullahi Mohamed Nor as a senior presidential adviser for preventing and countering violent extremism. Nor had served as the country’s Minister of Internal Security until August this year.
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Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called on young al-Shabab fighters he says are “brainwashed” to surrender to the government amid ongoing military offensives against the group.

Speaking at a mosque in the country’s capital Friday, Mohamud, who last year after his election for second term declared an “all-out war” against the Islamist insurgents, also called on the al-Shabab fighters to denounce the terrorist ideology before it is too late.

His remarks came after the militants carried out two attacks on government forces in Somalia’s central region in two days, killing more than 43 people including senior officers.

He said he wants to tell the boys to return from the wrong path they are taking. He urged them to return to their government, to their people and to their religion. He said every step they take from now on will only increase their guilt.

The president’s message comes as Somali forces, backed by locals, continue battling the group in the “total war” he declared on the militants.  Government forces have liberated large swathes of territory from the group, mainly in the south-central state of Hirshabelle.

Speaking to state-run television in Mogadishu, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said an investigation is underway into soldiers who were arrested on suspicion of facilitating the al-Shabab attack on the Villa Rays Hotel in Mogadishu in late November.  

Barre did not say how many soldiers were involved.

He says all the soldiers who were working that day have been arrested and an investigation is currently underway. He says he wants the ongoing investigation to be successful and impartial.

The hotel attack claimed by the militant group al-Shabab killed at least 13 people, including five al-Shabab attackers.

The popular Villa Rays hotel was located near the presidential palace in Mogadishu and was frequented by senior government and security officials.

The Somali government has been fighting al-Shabab for more than 15 years.  The Islamist group carries out deadly attacks in the Horn of Africa nation targeting government officials and African Union peacekeepers.
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Mali’s junta leader Friday pardoned all 49 Ivorian soldiers whose arrest in July triggered a bitter diplomatic row, a government spokesperson said, just a week after the courts sentenced them.

“Colonel Assimi Goita… granted a pardon with full remission of sentences to the 49 Ivorians convicted by the Malian justice system,” said a statement from government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the minister for territorial administration and decentralization.

On Dec. 30, 46 soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while three women among the original 49, who had already been freed in early September, received death sentences in absentia.

They were convicted of an “attack and conspiracy against the government” and of seeking to undermine state security, public prosecutor Ladji Sara said in a statement at the time.

The trial opened in the capital Bamako on Dec. 29 and concluded the following day.

The court proceedings came in the run-up to a Sunday deadline set by leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for Mali to release the soldiers or face sanctions.

Mali’s junta had branded the troops — who were detained after arriving at Bamako airport July 10 — as mercenaries.

Ivory Coast and the United Nations say the soldiers were flown in to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali.

Escalation

Relations between ECOWAS and Mali had already been strained before the arrests, since President Ibrahim Boubar Keita was toppled in August 2020 by officers angered at failures to roll back a jihadi insurgency.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is considered one of the most intransigent West African leaders toward Mali’s putschists.

The junta has so far resisted West African pressure and sanctions and remained in power, pledging to step down in February 2024.

It indicted the 49 soldiers in mid-August and has released no information about their health or well-being since.

Junta leader Goita had said he was open to talks “in the strict respect of the sovereignty of Mali,” according to a joint statement from the foreign ministers of Togo and Ivory Coast in July.

After the soldiers were arrested, the U.N. had acknowledged some procedural “dysfunctions” in a note addressed to the Malian government and admitted that “certain measures have not been followed.”

The Ivorian presidency had also acknowledged in September “shortcomings and misunderstandings,” after Mali had demanded an apology.

But the row escalated in September, when diplomatic sources in the region said Mali wanted Ivory Coast to acknowledge its responsibility and express regret for deploying the soldiers.

Bamako also wanted Ivory Coast to hand over people who had been on its territory since 2013 but who are wanted in Mali, they said.

Ivory Coast rejected both demands and was prepared for extended negotiations to free the men, the sources said.

“This hostage-taking will not be without consequences,” the Ivorian president said at the time.

That led Maiga, who was then interim prime minister, to denounce a “synchronization of actions” against Mali at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 24.

He denounced U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for having declared that the Ivorian soldiers were not mercenaries.

He also criticized ECOWAS leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo as well as the heads of state of Ivory Coast and Niger.

Friendship and brotherhood

An Ivorian delegation traveled to Mali for talks on the crisis before the trial opened, and the Ivorian defense ministry said it was “on the way to being resolved.”

An agreement reached between Mali and Ivory Coast had left the possibility open of a presidential pardon by Goita.

“The measure of pardon taken by the president of the transition thus reinforces the momentum created following the signing … of the Memorandum of Understanding on the promotion of peace and the strengthening of relations of friendship, brotherhood and good neighborliness between the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Ivory Coast,” Maiga said in the statement Friday.

The Malian government thanked Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe — who has been mediating in the row and had paid a “friendly working visit” to Bamako on Wednesday — “for his tireless efforts and constant commitment to dialogue and peace in the region.”

But it denounced the “aggressive position” of ECOWAS leader Embalo.
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Security forces in Somalia’s breakaway republic of Somaliland on Thursday withdrew from the contested border town of Las Anod after days of deadly protests.  The town is claimed by Somalia’s Puntland State but run by Somaliland, which broke from Somalia in 1991.  Anti-government protests erupted there last week after a politician was shot dead, leading to clashes with police in which at least eight other people were killed.

Las Anod Mayor Abdirahim Ali told VOA calm returned to the town Thursday after traditional leaders called on all sides to maintain peace as Somaliland withdrew troops.

He says the troops stationed in the town were instructed by their commanders to withdraw and return to their previous stations. Ali says elders, the business community, and everyone who supports security and peace in Las Anod have agreed to work together to restore the peace that once existed in this town.

Somaliland deployed troops to the disputed border town after deadly clashes broke out last week between anti-government protesters and police.

The protests were sparked by the shooting death of a local politician and escalated Wednesday when a shopkeeper was shot dead.

Medical sources in Las Anod told VOA at least 15 people were killed in the fighting over the past week but Dr. Abdirahim Warfa, who works in the town’s main public hospital, recorded only eight deaths.

Somalia’s Puntland State claims Las Anod, which is controlled by Somaliland, a northern territory that broke away from Somalia in 1991.

Somaliland is self-governed and more stable than Somalia, but not recognized internationally as a country.

Hassan Sheikh, a political analyst at Somali National University, said people in La Anod identify more with Somalia than Somaliland.

Political grievances are a major part of the Las Anod violence, he said, because people lack representatives in the bodies of government that correspond to their social, economic, and territorial groups.

Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad, director of the Nairobi-based HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Somaliland has failed to convince Las Anod’s population to support its breaking away from Somalia. 

He said in the fifteen years since Somaliland’s administration was established in Las Anod aren’t convinced that Somaliland’s project to split them from the rest of Somalia is viable, since the population does not favor it.  Abdisamad said to persuade them, Somaliland tried to use force, which is impossible.

Somaliland army commanders said they withdrew from the town to avoid further escalation but said they would prevent further instability.

Sheikh said the uprising that occurred in Las Anod could lead to others and spread from town to town.  He said that could negatively impact Somaliland’s political goal, which is to secede from Somalia.

Somaliland President Muse Bihi on Wednesday dismissed concerns about the deadly unrest, calling it an “incidental clash between the police and the people.”

Bihi promised an investigation into the violence but also declared a readiness to defend the territory if neighboring Puntland declared war.

Somaliland and Puntland have a history of disputes over their border areas that occasionally turn violent.

While Somaliland is relatively stable, it has seen protests in recent months that turned violent and raised international concerns.

In August, clashes between police and opposition supporters over delayed elections saw at least five people killed and scores injured.
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