Guled Maher
The Chairman of the Legal Council of the Republic of Somaliland, lawyer Mohamud Hussein Farah, has underpinned the importance of the MoU agreement reached by the two countries of Somaliland and Ethiopia.
He spoke in depth about the issue in an interview he gave to the public media regarding the maritime laws of Somaliland and the memorandum of understanding reached by Somaliland and Ethiopia which has been discussed a lot in the Horn of Africa and the rest of the world.
The chairman of the Laws Committee was giving details about the maritime laws that Somaliland used to have and the time it started, we have dated that Somaliland had maritime laws in the years 1904 to 1905.
“There were maritime regulations that were made by the British, which included the Bulahar Regulation, Berbera Port Regulation and many others that were designed to govern Somaliland’s maritime sector,” said Mohamud Hussein.
The lawyer noted that when looking at the maritime laws of Somaliland before the British, there were rules and regulations of the people of Somaliland which governed the Somaliland sea.
He pointed out that by the time Somaliland got its independence, it was using the maritime rules inherited from the British government hence the country was recognized by 35 nations upon attaining its sovereignty in 1960, which included the most powerful countries in the world, the United States, amongst others.
He revisited the fact that following the ill-fated union with the former Somalia regime of the Italian protectorate, the dissolution of the union saw Somaliland revert to its colonial borders to date.
Mohamud Hussein Farah said that upon Somaliland reverting to its independence in 1991, he noted that it also regained its land and sea rights, something whos legalities ought to be understood correctictly.
Chairman Mohamed explained that after the return of Somaliland’s independence, Somaliland has re-organized its constitution stepped into the process of democracy with all the justifiable trappings of statehood entailed since hence governing itself.
The Chairman of the Law Reform Committee emphasized that the historical agreement reached by the Republic of Somaliland and the Government of Ethiopia as a great success and said that there are many opportunities for Somaliland in it that surpasses all negative aspects.
He also suggested the media participate in the defence of their country and noted that Somalia is using the media to undermine the development and existence of Somaliland.