Garoowe (PP Editorial) — Thirty years ago, a landmark agreement was signed in Mogadishu by the Somali Salvation Democratic Front, Somali National Alliance and Somali National Democratic Union. Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, then the Chairman of Emergencies in Northeastern Somalia Authority, represented what, in 1998, would become the first semi-autonomous administration of Somalia – Puntland State. Before the agreement was signed Gaalkacyo was under the SSDF forces, but was a deserted district that saw battles since early 1991, when USC forces loyal to General Mohamed Farah Aideed (who signed the agreement on behalf of SNA), attacked the administrative capital of Mudug.
It was the idea of Abdullahi Yusuf’s to reach a conclusive agreement about the Galkaacyo conflict since the district was a home to both SSDF and USC supporter. He said that an unconditional return of inhabitants of south Gaalkacyo was the path to peaceful co-existence. The Chairman of SSDF, the late Mohamed Abshir Musse, backed Yusuf’s initiative, which has become a model of reconciliation adopted by the late Somaliland administration President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal in 1995 to consummate the Erigavo Agreement.
What was rermatlale about the Gaalkacyo Agreement was the commitment to returning any fixed and non-fixed assets looted from citizens belonging to the South and North Gaalkacyo. Both General Aideed and Colonel Yusuf demonstrated what political leaders can accomplish to end a conflict and ensure that mutual respect will be the basis for peaceful, intra-clan co-existence in Mudug. The Gaalkacyo Agreement was signed during the UNISOM operation in Somalia. The 1992 humanitarian intervention in Somalia created an atmosphere to hold the conference in South Mogadishu, then under control of General Aideed.
The new generation of Somali political leaders based in Mogadishu particularly President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his Damuljadiid clique, sees Gaalkacyo as a launching pad used to destabilise North Gaalkacyo under the Puntland State of Somalia. Damuljadiid campaigns for protecting the illegal privileges of people who looted properties, occupied public properties in Mogadishu and nearby regions despite the clique benefiting from the presence of African peacekeeping forces.
The Gaalkacyo Agreement offers lessons about what committed political leaders can do to protect the Somali citizens’ right to peaceful co-existence. It is a not an agreement based on what the incumbent Somalia President expounded in his restricted PhD dissertation: “Examining the Challenges of Clan Politics in Statebuilding: A Case Study of Somalia”.
© Puntland Post, 2023.
