Somali journalists have descended on Juba to cover Southern Sudan's historic referendum. There is hardly anything odd about this, as over 250 media organisations and hordes of journalists from the world over have been accredited to the event.

But the journalists in question are actually from Hargeisa, the capital of the Republic of Somaliland, the region that unilaterally broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1999 following the collapse of Siad Barre's Mogadishu regime.

The Hargeisa Star Newspaper, and a motley of other leading Somaliland media organisations, have sent several reporters to Southern Sudan even as President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo back home this week declared a national rain-seeking day in the face of biting drought.

In the self-declared state struggling to find its footing, hardly any of the media organisations can comfortably afford to send reporters to Juba and they have had to dig deep to fund the expense.

Their mission is one: To satisfy the huge appetite in Somaliland for news over the secession vote which has captured the imagination of the people.

Many in Somaliland are rooting for a successful independence vote. The breakaway region has for years aspired to be officially free from the rest of Somalia.

Somaliland officials regularly travel the world, campaigning for recognition for their self-styled republic from the rest of the world; a tacit admission that they are still shareholders to a globally-recognised state known as Somalia, which has its capital as Mogadishu.

Implied

Reports from diplomatic circles say the officials are regularly told to seek separation--and recognition-- from fellow Somalis.

The territory, which is situated in north-western Somalia, has so far had four presidents. The first, Abdurahman Ahmed Ali, renounced the separatism and died while ardently campaigning for the unity of Somalia.

Presidents Darhir Rayale Kahin and the late Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, and the current head of state, Ahmed Silanyo, seemed to be agreed on a unilateral path, and could take lessons from the Southern Sudanese.

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) downed their arms and accepted a Kenya-brokered negotiated settlement in 2005 that offered a promise of the current referendum.

Somaliland leaders have always rebuffed the idea of looking for an internal solution, severally rejecting suggestions that they talk to other Somalis.

Their argument has been that Somaliland had been a British protectorate that gained independence on June 26, 1960, five days before uniting with Italian-ruled Somalia on July 1.

"We had been an independent state before the rest of Somalia," has been the refrain by separatist officials in Hargeisa.

Refrain

Western capitals have urged Somaliland leaders to convince its neighbours of its need for self-determination.

That assignment requires them to lobby their cause with the leaders of the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Agency on Development (Igad). which apart from Somalia includes Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Eritrea.

The process of seeking self-determination for Southern Sudan and for Somaliland had been remarkably similar.

The Southern Sudanese embarked on their last armed rebellion to fight the Khartoum-based Sudanese government in the early 1980s.

In Somaliland, the first nucleolus of a guerrilla group was established in 1983 inside the Ethiopian border to wage cross-border attacks on the forces of Gen Barre in Somalia.

Neither the South Sudanese nor the Somaliland rebels declared their secessionist intentions at the beginning.

Surprisingly, the two movements did not even have names depicting their real secessionist plans. The pro-Somaliland rebel group called itself the Somali National Movement (SNM).

But when the central government in Somalia collapsed, the true face of SNM emerged, seeking separation for the north-western regions from the rest of Somalia.

The group in Somalia never used ‘Somaliland National Movement’ to hint secession.

Impression
Dancing to the same tune, the Southern Sudan rebel group used SPLM that stood for ‘Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.’ They did not use ‘Southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement or (SSPLM)’ to suggest secession.

Both movements in Somalia and in Sudan gave the impression that they were struggling to correct faulty governing systems in their respective countries rather than their hidden separatist aspirations.

In Somalia, many people anticipate two fundamental things to happen if Somaliland is granted independence. The region’s clan dynamics may turn into a self-destructive phenomenon.

Groups unhappy with separation may rebel, seeking their own separation from an already separated territory. In such a scenario, people could helplessly witness one separation after another, unless measures to prevent that are now worked out.

For the rest of Somalia, new groups may set foot on the separatist path started by Somaliland. Puntland in north-eastern Somalia and several others may become potential candidates for statehood, bringing forth a horde of African mini-states with flags and other identities and all seeking recognition.

No wonder, then, that the leaders of Somaliland are critically looking at the referendum in Southern Sudan, particularly as the majority of the people look set to vote for total independence and the birth of Africa’s 54th state.