Somaliland Suspends Dozen UN Agencies

Somaliland government has announced the suspension of a dozen UN agencies and has asked them to discontinue their projects in the country. The suspended organizations under the UN with offices in Somaliland include UNDP, FOA, WHO, UNICEF, WFP, IOM, and others.

The Minister of Planning and Development Mr Hassan Mohamoud Ali issued a ministerial circular to this effect on the 25th of this month.  In the letter, he ordered that UN agencies’ operations in Somaliland have to cease.

However, the government did not state which law(s) Somaliland government found these UN agencies to have violated.

The circular concluded that they have to halt all humanitarian activities till further notice.

Since 1991, Somaliland has had a good working relationship with UN organizations and agencies; they took part in the mechanising government offices, including equipping the police department and playing crucial roles in the development of the country.

Between a span of 30 years, Somaliland and UN agencies have never collided albeit instances of declaring a senior UN officer a persona non grata might have occurred.

This time the working ties between Somaliland and UN agencies hit all time lows.

Contrarily, the UN organisations which operate in Somaliland have not issued any official reaction to the situation at hand.