Several people were killed and dozens injured in Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region on Thursday after police opened fire on anti-government protesters, opposition party members and witnesses said.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of the capital Hargeisa but also in the cities of Burao and Erigavo after the failure of negotiations between the government and the opposition parties.
They accuse the authorities of seeking to delay the presidential election scheduled for November.
The demonstrators carried signs for the maintenance of the elections on November 13, 2022 and chanted anti-government slogans.
“Peace can only reign in Somaliland with free and fair elections, may those who defend democracy prevail,” Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, leader of the main opposition party, Waddani, told the crowd.
A protest organizer, Ahmed Ismail, told AFP that three people, including a woman, were killed in Hargeisa and 34 others were hospitalized.
“Several people, including one of our party leader’s security guards, were killed, we are still investigating the total number of deaths which may be higher,” a member of Waddani told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
One person also died in Erigavo during clashes between protesters and police, said witness Abdullahi Mohamud.
The government’s decision to register new political parties ahead of the elections has also angered Waddani and the opposition Justice and Welfare Party (UCID), who fear new movements could weaken them.
“We will not stop these protests…until the president (Muse Bihi Abdi) announces that he is ready for the elections,” said Heybe Adan, one of the protesters.
In June, opposition leaders accused police of firing tear gas and live ammunition to break up an anti-government protest in Hargeisa, with the same demands.
A former British colony, Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, an act not recognized by the international community that left this region of 4.5 million people poor and isolated.
Somaliland, however, remained an island of stability, compared to Somalia, ravaged by decades of political violence and a deadly Islamist insurgency.