Jigjiga (AX) — Somali Regional State President Mustafe Mohamud Omar says the sacrifices made during decades of conflict belonged to ordinary people, not to any single political organization or its leaders.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Mustafe said thousands of people had been killed or suffered permanent physical disabilities in struggles waged in the name of the public’s rights.
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“The public itself bore the heaviest suffering and losses from those conflicts because they played a major role and paid the highest price,” he said.
Mustafe said the central issue should not be whether the past struggles were justified, but rejected claims that one organization could take exclusive credit for them.
“It is wrong for individuals claiming organizational leadership to assert that they alone are the face of the region’s struggle,” Mustafe said.
His comments appeared aimed at leaders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), particularly a faction operating from the diaspora.
“How can individuals claiming to represent the struggle present themselves as superior to families who lost relatives in past conflicts? For example, some live abroad with their children while financing their lifestyles with money collected in the name of the struggle,” he said.
Mustafe said political movements typically include both committed participants who endure hardship and individuals who use the cause for personal benefit.
The remarks come as political and leadership divisions within the ONLF deepen, with two principal factions asserting that they represent the organization.
One faction, led by Abdirahman Mohamed Sheikh Mahdi and operating outside the region, has rejected the policies of the Somali Regional Government and Ethiopia. Its members have recently indicated that a return to armed struggle remains possible.
The rival faction, headed by Abdikarin Sheikh Muse Qalbidhagax, is based in Jigjiga and has registered as a political party in the Somali region.
Mustafe has stepped up his criticism of ONLF politics in recent weeks after one of the organization’s members raised the possibility of resuming armed conflict.
The dispute unfolds against a backdrop of broader political tensions in Ethiopia and renewed debate over the future direction of ONLF politics in the Somali region.
