Dr. Claire Elder – Who Funded Your Biased Piece on Somaliland?

Vigilant Somalilanders active on Twitter platform have given a deluge of factual responses to and exposed an enormous misinformation contained in a recent article doctored by Dr. Claire Elder. Bury your bias and come to your senses Dr. Claire Elder. The reality in Somaliland is well established and known to the international community. A single fabricated piece cannot tarnish its image.

Dr. Claire – who funded this research please? Was it China by any chance, or organizations with links to China? Looks like the anti-Somaliland propaganda has started. 

A common theme in recent Somaliland studies is that a whole paradigm is built on top of one or two rare incidents that are not even verifiable. More humility is required by researchers when processing raw data. (https://twitter.com/haadka_hargeysa) 

Somaliland is the only democracy in the Horn of Africa. Holds free and fair elections. If Somaliland is ‘taking an authoritarian turn’ what does that say about Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea? The report title is misleading. Is there an ulterior motive here? She is funded by UN Somalia. This is a propaganda piece to destabilize Somaliland. How is talking about Jeegaan, Garhajis, etc. an academic article? This is purely designed to inflame and incite clan conflict in Somaliland head of the Presidential election. The anti-Somaliland campaign in full flow. She works for International Crisis Group! Her entire career is built on suffering & war in the Horn. This provocative article is designed to inflame tensions in Somaliland ahead of presidential elections.  

Conflict = money & funding  

So many blatant errors and lies in her ‘article’, she’s either clueless and making it up or she has an agenda: 

1. She has renamed Somali National Movement (SNM) as the “Somalia National Movement” 
2. She casually describes Siad Barre’s Brutal dictatorship as just “predatory” 
3. She completely makes up that Somaliland has a “military-logistics complex” funded by Somaliland Development Fund (SDF). This is a LIE. The SDF only funds infrastructure, water & other development projects! Also, Somaliland hardly has a military as it is, let alone a complex! 
4. She says “every [Somaliland] election since 2002 has also seen high rates of state interference, intimidation, rigging”. This is another blatant LIE. Somaliland’s elections were declared FREE and FAIR by independent international observers, who were there, on the ground. 
5. There are many, many, more lies, falsehoods and half-truths in this propaganda piece. She is clearly a hired pen. It’s propaganda. Her work is funded by UNSOM agencies (check out the website of International Crisis Group) to see who the funders are. No surprise there. 
6. She goes at great lengths to put “Jeegaan” against “Garhajis” and she says Garhajis specifically benefitted from colonial favor! This woman is downright dangerous, more trialist than even Landers. She is deliberately and intentionally trying to create clan conflict in Somaliland. 
7. She claims Silaanyo somehow created “the rapid expansion of Dahabshiil” remittances in 2012. A LIE. Dahabshiil already was since 90s the largest remittances company, under late former Somaliland president – Abdirahman Ahmed Ali (Tuur), late former Somaliland president Mohamed Hagi Ibrahim Egal, and former Somaliland president Dahir Riyaale Kaahin. This woman is clearly trying to stoke division between Somalilanders. 
8. She deliberately uses the word “Jeegaan” which is a pejorative term, political slur, in a so-called academic article. She juxtapositions this against other Somaliland clans. She knows exactly what she’s doing. This is ‘Isku Dir’ not genuine academic research. 
9. This woman is a paid provocateur, a hired pen. She is trying destabilize Somaliland. She is funded by UNSOM and other actors who are aligned with Somalia’s failed federal government. UNSOM has a long history of destabilizing Somaliland. In the 90s the UN through UNOSOM wanted “One Somalia” under a Federal model so they tried to destroy the peace process in Somaliland by funding and pinning leaders against each other which instigated war. Somaliland literally overcame everything. ((https://twitter.com/SomalilandActio)

Ending War: Lessons from Somaliland by Australian Institute of International Affairs