US Rep Ilhan Omar Denounces Somaliland's MoU with Ethiopia
Ilhan Omer is a woman from Southern Somalia who became an American citizen and serves as a representative in the US House for a Minnesota district that is home to a sizable Somali diaspora population.
She traveled to Puntland State in December 2022, where she was born, and the capital of Mogadishu in Southern Somalia. She had never even stepped foot in Somaliland Republic, which was once a part of the Somali Republic after uniting with Southern Somalia.
The Horn of Africa’s reality is very representative of and supportive of Somaliland’s democracy, which dates back to 1991, when it unilaterally broke its union with Southern Somalia and reclaimed its independence.
It is astonishing that Representative Ilhan Omer never mentions Somaliland democracy, much less traveled there while on tour in that region of the Horn of Africa. Ilhan’s actions make it abundantly evident that she does not have a strong sense of loyalty to the American political system and that she strongly believes in clan affiliation, which runs counter to the democratic ideals and values that underpin American democracy.
Ethiopia and Somaliland’s leaders signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Addis Ababa on January 1st, opening the door for Ethiopia to recognize Somaliland in return for access to the Res Sea and the lease of a naval station.
The Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud-led administration in southern Somalia has been furious from day one about this new development. Echoing that sentiment, Southern Somali diaspora in Minneapolis, led by Representative Ilhan Omar, organized a procession and meetings on the 27th of this month to back the president of Somalia’s irrational and emotional responses.
In a multidimensional speech, Ilhan Omar spoke to the community meeting and shared her own views and those sentiments in common with the Southern Somali community.
She opened her address by braising the “Doctrine of Greater Somalia,” which was held during the independence struggles and advocated for the unification of the so-called “Shanta Somaliya or the Five Somalis,”. This kind of thinking runs counter to the UN and African Union charters, as well as the existing internal borders marked out in the Horn of Africa, the African continent, and several other regions of the world.
Ilhan Omar stated that Somalia had to fight for regions that are currently, in her view and that of Southerners, occupied by other nations, referring to the Northern Frontier District (NFD), a Kenyan province, and the Ethiopian Somali state. As a component of what is referred to as Greater Somalia, the representative’s statement also implies that Djibouti should be annexed by Somalia.
In her speech, she indirectly mentioned the MoU between Somaliland and Ethiopia and how she opposes it. When she talked about that deal, without naming Somaliland, she disrespectfully said “those who call or claim themselves to be Somalis” who made an agreement with Ethiopia.
She said that the US government is caving in to the whims and desires of the southern Somali Diaspora, and she is a woman sent to the US House of Representative to represent Somalia, betraying the majority of non-Somali natives who casted their votes to represent them.
Stated differently, I work as a Somali government lobbyist in the US House of Representatives. She disregarded Joe Biden and said that Hassan Sheikh Muhamoud is her president. She urged that all Somalis should unite in their support of Hassan Sheikh. As if she had authority over Somaliland and Ethiopia, she swore that the Memorandum of Understanding between Somaliland and Ethiopia won’t go through during her term in parliament.
The American Somaliland Diaspora, particularly those at Minnesota State, who supported this representative, ought to attentively listen her recent remarks towards and her animosity for Somaliland. In the same token, the Minnesotans in general should open their eye wide and see who represents their state in the US House of Representatives.
