Fragile Alliances and Fierce Loyalties: The Deepening Quagmire of the Laascaanood Conflict..

On July 18, Somali Federal Darwiish Police Force Colonel Cadaawe Sheikh Idiris, a brave officer trained by the Italian Carabinieri with the support of multiple international organizations, lost his life in the Laascaanood fight…

Cadaawe had made a fateful decision to leave the Somali Federal Darwish and join the ranks of the Somaliland fighters, facing the Dhulbahante clan militia, ultimately meeting his demise.

In the wake of Cadaawe’s death, a relative, Jama Mohamed Ibrahim, known as Haarane, mourned the loss of his dear friend and brother. “Death is inevitable, and only God remains. May God have mercy on Cadaawe Sheikh Idiris,” he solemnly expressed.

The Laascaanood conflict had claimed the lives of numerous officers before Cadaawe, but his tragic fate revealed a disheartening reality of trained officers choosing to align with their clans to perpetrate violence against fellow civilians and trigger mass displacement. In a cruel twist, on the opposing side of the battle stood another Somali Federal Darwish police colonel, Abdirisaq Bihin, now serving as the commander of the communications unit for the Dhulbahante clan fighters in Laascaanood.

Both men were part of the Federal Darwish, a robust civilian unit of the Federal Somali Police Force who have been principally trained in Djibouti in April 2022 at the request of the Government of Somalia with funding by the EU Delegation to Somalia, the European Union Capacity Building Mission in Somalia (EUCAP Somalia), the European Training Mission in Somalia (EUTM Somalia), and by the United Nations Police (UNPOL).

Speaking defiantly at the frontline in the Maraaga mountains, east of Laascaanood, Colonel Bihin boasted about confronting his former comrade, stating, “Just 10 days ago, he called me and said, ‘Either I will catch you or you will die, Mr. Bihin.’ Just go back to Mogadishu.” “Eventually, we killed him and the right cause has won,” Bihin added.