Dr Abdijalil Hassan*
In April 2025, the Federal Government of Somalia formally recognized the SSC-Khaatumo administration as the North-Eastern Federal Member State, a historic victory for a community that had long been sidelined, militarized, and politically suppressed . Yet, for the people of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn, recognition has not translated into relief. Instead, a quiet, slow-motion catastrophe is unfolding, one driven not by droughts, but by political manipulation of humanitarian aid perpetrated by key figures in the Somali cabinet with direct ties to Somaliland, a rival administration hostile to the new unionist state.
UN humanitarian agencies, pressured and influenced by senior Somali officials from the Isaaq clan,particularly Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama and Finance Minister Bihi Iman Egeh have systematically biased their intervention against the North-Eastern State. This violation of fundamental humanitarian principles is not merely a political grievance; it is inflicting tangible suffering on hundreds of thousands of vulnerable civilians, undermining the equity and equality of resource distribution enshrined in international law.
The Mogadishu-Hargeisa Axis
On paper, both Salah Ahmed Jama (Deputy Prime Minister) and Bihi Iman Egeh (Minister of Finance) are senior officials of the Somali federal government. In practice, their political DNA is rooted in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which has historical grievances and ongoing territorial hostility towards the North-Eastern state.
Deputy Prime Minister Salah Ahmed Jama and Finance minister Bihi Egeh are from the breakaway region of “Somaliland”, Both men are deeply embedded in the economic and security establishment of Somalia,meaning they sit at the table where federal budget allocations, donor negotiations, and humanitarian coordination decisions are made. This positions them to channel resources away from the North-Eastern State of Somalia.
A Humanitarian Crisis Of Neglect And Diversion
The humanitarian needs in the North-Eastern State are immense. Conflict in the Sool region alone displaced an estimated 154,000 to 203,000 people from December 2022 onward, with approximately 100,000 crossing into Ethiopia . Severe drought, disease outbreaks, and lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter, food, and healthcare have created a complex emergency . Across Somalia, nearly 6 million people required humanitarian assistance in 2025, including 1.7 million children suffering from acute malnutrition and the North-Eastern State remains among the most underserved.
The manipulation follows a consistent pattern: international agencies and donor governments have long classified SSC as “disputed territory” because “Somaliland” and Puntland lay competing claims over it. This label, critics argue, has been weaponized to look away, allowing projects to be shifted elsewhere while families in SSC endured the full weight of drought, climate shocks, hunger, collapsed health services, and poverty .
The Reported Bias Of Un Agencies
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has been at the center of these allegations. In April 2023, the former SSC-Khaatumo administration publicly condemned UNOCHA for violating the “do no harm” principle, accusing the agency of delivering aid that “continues to subjugate our people” and of conspiring with the Hargeisa (Somaliland) regime . The former SSC-Khaatumo said it would file a formal complaint against UNOCHA and other aid groups that fail to respect the regional authority and its directives .
The Somali federal government’s neglect of the North-Eastern State is blatant. Parliamentarians from “Somaliland” in the Somali legislative houses, whose seats nearly double those of the Northeast, use their political weight to block equitable resource distribution. Yesterday’s inauguration of the $31 million Bulsho Project excluded the North-Eastern State entirely, while including Somaliland itself. This systemic bias, driven by rival clan politicians, violates every principle of equity, leaving an entire community abandoned by the very government meant to serve it.
How The Bias Affects Livelihoods
This chronic neglect destroys lives, not just statistics. Mothers watch children go to bed hungry. Families walk for days in search of water. Communities lack clean water systems, vocational training, rangeland management, and climate-smart agriculture . When aid does arrive via unauthorized channels or hostile neighboring administrations, it can inadvertently fund rival political forces rather than the intended beneficiaries, a practice Northeastern state describes as “aid that continues to subjugate our people” .
The new North-Eastern State government, led by President Abdikadir Ahmed Aw-Ali (Firdhiye), has repeatedly requested direct aid coordination. In May 2025, Firdhiye met with the SoDMA Commissioner to brief him on ongoing humanitarian challenges, noting the pressing needs of vulnerable communities due to poor Gu rainfall . But the federal government has also moved in the opposite direction. In 2024, Mogadishu allocated $60 million for education projects in several Somali regions, but excluded North-Eastern state is entirely from the funding . A deputy leader of North-Eastern state publicly protested that the region had been systematically disregarded, even as the government channeled resources elsewhere .
The cumulative effect is devastating. Without predictable access to international aid or federal support, the North-Eastern State remains isolated, surviving on the fringes of Somalia’s complex political landscape, with no functioning ports or trade routes to generate local revenue . The region’s fragile, nascent administration is starved of the resources it needs to rebuild schools, health clinics, water wells, and drought resilience programs.
A Violation Of Equity And Equality Under International Law
By any measure, this pattern violates the core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence particularly the bedrock requirement that aid be distributed based on need alone, not political affiliation or territorial dispute. When UN agencies channel aid through the Hargeisa regime without the consent of the recognized federal member state in whose territory they operate, they are complicit in a form of structural bias that delivers resources not to the most vulnerable, but to the most politically connected.
The international community cannot claim ignorance. Donors, including the UN, the EU, the UK, and the US have been systematically briefed by both the federal government and North-Eastern officials on the humanitarian crisis. Yet funding continues to be negotiated through Mogadishu, where ministers with direct clan links to “Somaliland” hold the veto power over which regions receive what, and through which routes.
This is not simply “politics as usual” in a fragile state. It is a betrayal of the most vulnerable. The people of the North-Eastern State have formed a legitimate, recognized federal member state. They have elected their own leadership. They have asked simply for the equality of aid resources that every other Somali region enjoys—no more, no less.
Conclusion: A Call For Accountability And Reform
The United Nations and its humanitarian agencies must immediately audit their aid distribution practices in the North-Eastern State, ensuring that all programs are coordinated directly with the legitimate government of North-East, bypassing hostile “Somaliland” based interference. The federal government must remove from ministerial positions that control humanitarian purse strings any individual whose clan allegiance to a rival administration demonstrably biases the allocation of life-saving assistance.
For the people of North-East state , the question is no longer whether they deserve aid. The question is whether the world is finally willing to deliver aid equitably, transparently, and without political manipulation to a community that has waited decades for justice . Silence by the UN is not neutrality. It is a choice and that choice is costing lives.
* Abdijalil Hassan is a Medical Doctor and an activist for neglected communities in the horn of Africa.
