Somaliland rejects Uganda’s offer to facilitate reunification talks with Somalia

Somaliland, a breakaway region that declared autonomy from Somalia in 1991, has said it has no plans to discuss reunification with Somalia despite the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s announcement he was willing to act as a “unification mediator” between the two governments.
“Any dialogue that transpires between Somaliland and Somalia will not discuss unification, but rather how the two previously united countries can move forward separately,” Somaliland’s government said in a statement late on Sunday (24 September). Somaliland, which has not gained widespread international recognition for independence, has cultivated an image as an “oasis of stability” in the Horn of Africa, holding democratic elections and conducting disarmaments, for over three decades while its neighbor has been convulsed by civil war.
Some clan elders in disputed areas along Somaliland’s border with Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland state say they want to be part of Puntland rather than Somaliland. Heavy fighting broke out between Somaliland forces and militiamen in and around the town of Las Anod in one such area in February that has led to more than 200,000 being displaced since the conflict began. President Museveni offered to become facilitator in the reunification of Somalia with the breakaway Somaliland after more than three decades of separation, saying enhance economic growth and boost the welfare of citizens.