Widespread Disappointment With Riyale’s Visit To Djibouti

Hargeisa (SL Times):  President of the Republic of Somaliland, Mr. Dahir Riyale Kahin, is expected to return tomorrow from Djibouti to Hargeisa.

The President, accompanied by his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mohamed Saeed Gees and Minister of Rehabilitation Reconstruction and Resettlement, Mr. Abdillahi Hussein Iman (Direwal) had left Hargeisa early Thursday morning on a previously unannounced 3-day visit to the state of Djibouti.

The visit has, however, stirred widespread public disapproval in Somaliland. The visit came at a time when relations between Somaliland and Djibouti have reached their lowest point ever. The sudden departure of Mr. Riyale to Djibouti, last Thursday, has caught Somalilanders off-guard. Most people have been disappointed with the fact that the President chose to make his first trip to a country that, as one critic put it “has already unleashed all the damage that it could possibly afflict on Somaliland.”

The lack of an official explanation on the objectives of the visit has also surrounded Mr. Riyale’s mission to Djibouti with mystery.

A lot of people have expressed concern over the possibility of President Riyale being cheated by Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Ghelle. President Ghelle has apparently worked hard on getting Riyale to Djibouti. According to reliable sources in Djibouti, the Djiboutian President spent a lot of effort in order to convince President Riyale to make the visit. Initially the Somaliland President declined Ghelle’s invitation. Then Ghelle sought help from the Djiboutian Minister of Public Works, Saeed Barkhad, who is related to Riyale through clan lineage, Mr. Riyale then succumbed, agreeing to make the visit.

On arrival in Djibouti on Thursday, the Djiboutian government accorded a low-profile treatment for the visiting high-level Somaliland delegation, a gesture indicating that nothing has changed in Mr. Gelle’s long-held policy of marginalizing Somaliland. The Djiboutian sources added, that Mr. Ghelle desperately wanted to send a signal to his people and the Arabs, that he is still a man to be reckoned with when it comes to Somali politics.

“He wanted Riyale to show up in Djibouti in order to impress the Arab league’s Secretary General,  Amr Mussa, and the league’s newly-appointed special envoy to Somalia, both of whom are expected to visit Djibouti.

As a result of the controversy raised by his visit, President Riyale’s popularity has taken a dive for the first time since assuming the position of Somaliland’s President on May 3, 2002.