Sources : UAE bans Somaliland passports over Al-Shabab
“A few days ago, the Special Envoy of the Qatari Foreign Minister for Counterterrorism and Mediation in Conflict Resolution, Mutlaq bin Majid al-Qahtani, visited Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, which seceded from Somalia in 1991. Its 10-year conflict against Mogadishu reached appalling levels of violence, and when Somaliland was plunged into chaos, Somaliland leaders separated their region in the north and continued to impose their autonomy in open defiance of Mogadishu.”
According to a statement issued by Somaliland’s presidency, the Qatari envoy met with President Muse Bihi Abdi and discussed with him the opening of a diplomatic office in Hargeisa and the opening of another office of Qatar Charity in an attempt to get closer and polish its image so that it can return to the Somali scene, where the Qatari envoy’s visit in Hargeisa did not lack any political significance, and an indication that Doha will deal with all Somali administrations, including Somaliland, while in previous years it had no relation with those administrations, with a desire to jump from the sunken ship after the days of President Farmajo became numbered.
As is well known, the Qatari regime has played a negative role in Somalia in the past four years, supporting the outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and his government to implement the agendas that brought the country to the brink of civil war. The Somali government has also used illegal Qatari financial support to destroy three Somali states; are in the south-west, Gelmadg and Hirschbil, and in cracking down on opposition politicians, sabotaging the country’s political process.
According to Somali and foreign sources, the Somali Al-Shabab movement has enjoyed the support of Doha since its inception. It is a terrorist movement ideologically affiliated with Al-Qaeda led by Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and it conducts continuous terrorist attacks and acts of violence in Somalia, which plunged the country into a dark tunnel and increased its turmoil.
As Somaliland’s president, Muse Bihi Abdi, embraces a strategy of brinkmanship, designed to build new relations with other countries as well as their rapprochement with Qatar, experts and politicians believe that this enhances the emergence of the terrorist group Al-Shabab in the country and abroad, and may constitute a new bridge to support the movement. These possibilities will prompt several countries to take precautionary measures, including the United Arab Emirates. An informed source, who preferred anonymity, said that the Emirates will stop issuing visas to holders of Somaliland will put them on the list of red passports, that is, that is, the passports that are prohibited, so that the terrorist group Al-Shabaab may use these passports to move its members out of Somali territory.
