A vessel carrying an estimated 20,000 head of livestock has been unable to unload its cargo at the Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia.
The livestock which had been bought from Somaliland by the Islamic Bank for the consumption of pilgrims to Hajj, and not the Saudi Arabian government, have become pawns in the ineptness of the weak federal entity in Mogadishu.
The unelected and unrepresentative administration in Mogadishu have been, along with several unscrupulous traders ,trying to convince the Saudi Arabian government to ban the importation of Somaliland livestock, unless a certificate was issued by them.
Several senior officials from Mogadishu flew to Jeddah upon hearing that the cargo vessel had departed from Berbera, Somaliland.
The lack of understand of international commerce, has made the ineptness of the officials from the weak entity in Mogadishu even more astounding.
Firstly, Somaliland is a sovereign state, and the weak federal entity has no jurisdiction over any of it’s commercial ventures.
Secondly, this purchase of the livestock was made by the Islamic Bank and other independent merchants in Saudi Arabia, and not the Saudi government.
Thirdly, the livestock have already being paid for, and this is now a dispute between the weak federal entity in Mogadishu and the Saudi private purchasers.
And finally, the livestock cannot be returned to Somaliland, as it was purchased in good faith. So, unless, the weak federal entity in Mogadishu wants to reimburse the Saudi businessmen and the Islamic Bank, it is on a hiding to nothing.
These types of actions by the unelected and unrepresentative administration in Mogadishu is symptomatic of it’s attempts to wage economic and diplomatic war against Somaliland, whilst paying lip service to “unity and fraternity”.
Ali Mohamed Abokor
