The Assistant Minister for Interior of the Republic of Somaliland, Mohamed Mussa Derie, disclosed that 16 human traffickers have been rounded up and put behind bars in Hargeisa, the capital, alone.
The Minister said they were on the track of a much more number, and that the government will not rest until the security forces put a spoke on the ruthless, killing wheel of trafficker networks.
“The government stand is as the Vice President has made known to the public – the formation of a special police unit to combat traffickers and human trafficking,” he said.
Speaking at an occasion to mark the death of more than 200 Somaliland immigrants on the Mediterranean Sea, the Vice Minister said there was little that the government of Somaliland could do unless the whole region put a greater effort in breaking the backbone of this chain for good.
“We see Ethiopians in twos and threes on inter-cities roads on their way to, for example, Puntland, where they hoped they would catch a boat out, ” he said. “Ethiopia is better equipped, better resourced, better positioned to stop this influx of youngsters entering Somaliland or going through it to the Sudan and Libya, and yet it appears the issue has proven more formidable, more elusive than that can be handled by any one government’”.
Minister Derie called on all members of the society to join hands and hearts to stop this calamity that has swept the whole world to near despair in these past years.
The government of Somaliland sent the Vice Minister for Planning, Kaisser Abdullahi, to visit the survivors who have been rescued of the 16 April catastrophic incident on the high seas in between Egypt and the Greek islands.
That one incident alone, reports confirmed, accounted for the deaths of, largely, more than 400 Somali and Ethiopian immigrants.
The Vice Minister established that of the survivors, 9 were from Somaliland as named below.
- Abdihakeem Harir Ali, mother’s name is Hodan Hassan
- Samatar Elmi Abdullahi, mother’s name is Hamda Hussein
- Muhiaddin Hussein Ali, mother’s name is Hindisa Farah
- Abdihakeem Abokor Derie, mother’s name is Halwo Barreh
- Khalid Omar Doddi, mother’s name is Nimo Hassan
- Hamda Dahor Yussuf, mother’s name is Anab Aideed
- Najah Hussein Mohamed, mother’s name is Amina Abdi
- Liban Khadar Jama, mother’s name is Shadia Harun
- Ahmed Farhan Hassan, mother’s name is Safiya Abdi
VM Kaissar spoke with above survivors and other survivors of the boat wreck among the 23 found alive over a dinner he threw them. Minister Kaissar promised that the government of Somaliland will assist them return to their homes if they so chose.
It is not yet clear if any of the survivors took up the offer.
Vice Minister Kaissar and the survivors:
