The clan-based political alliance around Irir Samaale, hatched by the Djiboutian president and his allies in Somalia, the president of the federal government and the head of the separatist region of Somaliland, has recently caused concern among the Somali public, who see it as a political ploy to divide and perpetuate chaos in Somalia.
The Irir Samaale myth
The term Irir Samaale once belonged to the realm of Somali oral history and origin myth, but has found its way into the turbulent Somali political arena. According to traditional genealogists, Somali clans are said to be originated from a common ancestor whose descendants spread in the Horn of Africa region, divided in two main branches: Sab and Samaale.
Nomadic and mainly warring clans would have descended from Samaale, then subdivided into Irir – Dir and Hawiye – and Darod. There are regional variations and political reasons why a clan chooses to be associated with or distinguish themselves from a certain lineage.
Of course, mainstream Somali historians and other scholars who base their studies on scientifically sound data do not subscribe to the origin concept of these genealogists and generally stay away from these emotionally charged clan claims.
This issue is only relevant insofar as it interferes with the public governance and clan politics that is currently disrupting Somali life and could be a source of unnecessary additional violence against the people of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) regions.
However, it cannot be overstated that clans are not monoliths. Politicians who attempt to blur the lines between politics and clans in no way speak for their clans. As evidence, the traditional representatives of the Dir clans as well as the Hawiye sub-clans found the use of a barely accepted genealogy for political purposes inappropriate.
Ganging up against one clan
The idea of an Irir Samaale alliance which would bring together some northern Dir clans and the Hawiye clan is believed to have originated in December 2022 during the marriage of the daughter of Ismail Omar Guelleh, president of Djibouti, to Sadiq John, a member of the Somali parliament close to the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.
During the ceremony, one could see the conviviality, whether exaggerated or not, that reigned between individuals who normally find themselves at the two extremes of Somali politics. Indeed, the Somali president and the secessionist of the Somaliland region, Musa Bihi, had this unprecedented casualness of sharing the same table and laughing together while their role in Somalia is completely antagonistic.
The symbolism of this alliance was seen as a message to not only Puntland but mainly to the wider Darod clan which was recently alienated from Somali federal politics by President Hassan Sheikh. This is a perception reinforced by the meticulous choice of personalities invited to the wedding ceremony.
Once in power, President Hassan Sheikh had a fallout with Saeed Deni, the president of Puntland, but also with the leaders of the Gedo region mainly because of their clan affiliation to his predecessor. This hostility towards a clan that Hassan shares with Guelleh and Bihi was cultivated during the long protracted opposition to Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo presidency.
As clearly admitted by the ailing Djiboutian strongman, we could also interpret the wedding as a celebration of their victory over Farmajo which was subjected to the combined attacks of these three accomplices.
A failed opportunistic ploy
However, according to commentators on both sides, it was in the 1960s that the dominant clans in Mogadishu used the Irir Samaale alliance as a political subterfuge. For the Hawiye, the Darod politicians sought to drown out the Hawiye opposition by supporting a Dir clansman like Mohamed Ibrahim Igal.
For the other side, Hawiye politicians have revived a mythical ancestry that would make the Dir their cousins through the Irir Samaale common ancestor, which means they have a common interest, more number, more distribution on Somali territory and more legitimacy against the Darod clan vying to lead the nation.
In 1967, the elected president, Abdirashid Ali Sharmakeh, a Darod clan member, however knew how to turn the alliance of the Irir Samaale clans to his advantage and chose as prime minister Ibrahim Igal, an Isaaq, who himself claimed to represent the Irir Samaale.
The only time in Somali history when an Irir Samaale alliance could have worked and led the nation would have been after January 26, 1991, when President Mohamed Siyad Barre was ousted. It was a dismal failure with a lasting effect.
Indeed, Ali Mahdi, a Hawiye warlord, whose clan militia took control of Mogadishu, became the de facto president of a country in turmoil and chose Omar Arteh Ghalib, an Isaaq from the north, as prime minister.
The tandem had the clumsiness to disband the national army fighting various clan militias and ordered the army commanders to surrender to them. It was a fiasco from which the army never recovered and which gave rise to a bitter civil war from which destroyed Somalia and still divides the nation.
The Las Anod uprising exposed Hassan Sheikh
The “Irir Samaale” alliance, however, took a telling twist when, last December, unarmed residents of Las Anod rose up following a series of unsolved murders. This population, mainly Dhulbahante, a Darod sub-clan, could not bear to be torn between separatist Somaliland and the Puntland Regional State.
On February 6, the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn regions leaders unanimously decided to reject Somaliland claim on their territory and hoisted the blue flag of the union, placing themselves under the protection of the federal administration of Somalia and not Puntland of which they share much.
This caught a Hassan Sheikh off guard who had wielded the divisive tribal card against his predecessor Farmajo and is now trying to isolate Saeed Deni and Ahmed Madobe with whom he had once allied against Farmajo.
But now we have a Darod sub-clan that he associated with these former and current adversaries who are now appealing to the federal government he leads, especially since they are attacked for ideals of which in principle he is supposed to be the custodian.
Days after Las Anod was subjected to a heavy bombardment that claimed more than 200 lives and displaced over 200 thousands, President Hassan Sheikh paradoxically urged the embattled residents to resolve their conflict with the secessionist Somaliland.
Whether his reaction was a clumsy miscalculation or a stubborn insistence on his divisive politics, the public rightly interpreted it as Somalia’s president tacitly admitting Somaliland’s secession out of loyalty to the Irir Samaale alliance agreed with Musa Bihi in Djibouti.
Conspiring with a despotic foreign leader
Decried for not wanting to help the population of the SSC who hoisted the Somalian blue flag and taken under the bombardment of the separatists, the Somali president has tempered his public statements. For lack of other options, he appealed to Ismail Omar Guelleh to arbitrate the conflict in his own backyard.
Once again, the Somali public was appalled by Hassan Sheikh’s renunciation of his duty as Somali president by delegating to a foreign leader a conflict on his own territory. Especially since the SSC-Khatumo leaders rejected Guelleh’s mediation while his government is supplying arms to the Somaliland forces who bombard them indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, Hassan bluntly chose to close his ears to the SSC leaders’ demands for his direct intervention by appointing Abdirashid Guled as special envoy for Somaliland affairs. The choice of Guled advised by the Djibouti president was promptly welcomed by Somaliland who earlier rejected Ethiopia’s mediation.
After making it clear that he had no intention of opening a dialogue on the SSC-Khatumo issue, Guled met with federal government officials exclusively from the Isaaq clan, then flew to visit Guelleh in Djibouti.
Many Somali pundits, as well as Somalia’s “international partners” increasingly irritated by Bihi’s unilateral policies, believe this diplomatic dance between the Irir Samaale promoters is just a delaying tactics aimed at extending Bihi’s chokehold on Las Anod by shutting down patriotic forces.
Finally, this Irir Samaale cabal announces a renewal of tension which is not ready to go out since we are unconsciously heading straight for an irreparable fragmentation of Somalia. Why? For Hassan Sheikh to decimate unionist forces and stifle patriotic voices to cling to power, Musa Bihi to ensure recognition of Mogadishu for his separatist Somaliland, and Djibouti to continue plundering Somali resources. Irir Samaale is after all a vision of a Somalia united in division for the benefit of selfish interests.
