The Laascaanood conflict began 50 days ago on 6/2/2023. The International Crisis Group, which published a report at the height of Tukaraq conflict in 2018, has not issued a report on the second, longest inter-clan conflict in Somalia since 1992 affecting urban areas.
In its 2018 report ICG argued that strong cultural, religious and business ties could help stop the conflict. The reasoning behind this conclusion was that Somaliland, which then controlled Laascaanood, despite not enjoying the consent of locals, would repel any attack by Puntland. In January 2023, Laascaanood people kicked out Somaliland forces through popular uprising. Somaliland forces tried to return to Laascaanood, but figured out the potential risk of urban resistance in the form of house to house fighting, hence its strategy to amass its forces in Gooja’ade’s mountainous area to shell the district by using artillery and Stalin-rocket launchers.
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| Somaliland forces shelled residential areas of Laascaanood. |
Somaliland claimed that its forces were fighting terrorists in Laascaanood, a district federally represented by Puntland State of Somalia.
“President Muse Bihi Abdi of Somaliland brazenly tried to turn a political problem into a securitisation issue. A full-blown civil war in raging in Northern Somalia. I expected the International Crisis Group would publish a report on the most dangerous conflict in Somalia, a country whose national government is protected by ATMIS. The silence of the ICG on the conflict is puzzling” said a security analyst in Mogadishu.
More than 90 people lost their lives, 300 were maimed in Laascaanood as a result of the shelling by Somaliland forces.
