Somaliland Celebrates 26 years of independence, BBC interview with Somaliland Foreign Minister-Video

BBC-Somalia broke away from the rest of the country and declared itself independent the breakaway republic is arguably one of the most stable places in the Horn of Africa but more than a quarter of a century on and not one single other country recognizes as a state so how far has a country come

that’s a question I put to the Foreign Minister a little bit earlier.

Dr Saad-I think we have come in a long way since then in 1991 to 2000 was absolutely destroyed the

capital city at Hargeisa was just a rubble today if you visit Hargeisa is totally different there is a bustling metropolis with almost 1 million keyboards so I think we have really come a long way.

BBC-And let’s talk about the issue of Elections just want to read you a quote from Antonio Guterres he said he’s concerned about the continued delays in both presidential and parliamentary elections in Somaliland and he said it steadily eroding the promise of increased credibility that Somaliland held, how would you answer him.

Dr. Saad- we’re not happy about the delays either but because the separate commitments forces us inside to delay as you know we had a very severe drought this year and it was absolutely untenable and impossible to hold an election in March in the Middle’s of the senior the most severe drought in living memory and that’s why we have to spend until November and we’re on course and we’ll have the elections in November.

BBC- so, it’s not a guarantee that you’re giving.

Dr. Saad I think I can almost say, yes we’re going to.

BBC-you’re celebrating 26 years more than a quarter of a century since you declared independence still your country is not internationally recognized.

Dr Saad-I think were partially recognized, Somaliland Is a de facto state everybody recognize the reality on the ground there is a country called Somaliland you know and that is a state that is not recognized by the EU by the United Nations is not a member of New Year a what is sovereignty that’s not recognized but I say state is recognized we deal with the UN we deal with international businesses, we deal with other organizations the world is very much concerned these days with four subjects which you know terrorism and piracy and migration and conflict and I think the revolution of Somaliland would really play a major role in ensuring that we have a peaceful and a democratic horn and that we will be able to create you know job opportunity for our young people if recognized.

BBC-if you move into the next 25 years and how would you like to see your country moving forward.

Dr Saad-we’re trying to first is to build our economy and that’s obviously that’s a major task in front of us at the same time we would like in the coming years to also deal with this issue of sovereignty particularly we would like to resolve the issue between Somaliland  and Somalia to resolve through dialogue.