The Republic of Somaliland, today, prohibited use of Somalia-run DotSo domain which had of recent pervaded website identities of a number of Somaliland institutions.
The Somaliland Ministry of Telecommunication and Technology released an order that gives thirty days starting from today to institutions that have forayed into the DotSo domain to find and register with any of a number of neutral domains such as DotSo, DotOrg and DotCom.
“In line with the first article in the Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland and the bylaws that regulate our ministries’ structures and functions, nothing that can directly or indirectly violate national sovereignty is prohibited such as this DotSo Top-Level Domain licensed to and run by Somalia,” Dr. Abdiweli Abdullahi Soufi, the minister, said.
“All institutions including universities, business corporations and any and all institutions that have a need to use a domain of their own are addressed by this order,” he added.
His Excellency the Minister for Telecommunications, Dr Abdiweli, did not quite mention any specific institution but was clear in addressing those that his ministry discovered breaching the national identity.
Leading the breach of identity lines between the Federal government of Somalia and its erstwhile partner the Republic of Somaliland is the state-owned University of Hargeisa which, inexplicably, moved away from the international DotCom and DotNet domains it used until recently.
Presently, Somaliland shares nothing with a Somalia with whom it severed all ties 27 years ago: currency, flag, army, passport, etc.
The ministerial edict copied the Attorney General and the Ministry of Interior and National Security intimating the legal consequences of any institution that chose to ignore the blanket order. The order follows a public outcry against Somaliland institutions that have succumbed to yet another clumsy attempt to compromise the well-earned, legally sound restoration of Somaliland sovereignty on the part of the internationally-propped weak government at Mogadishu’s Villa Somalia.
READ ALSO: University of Hargeisa Goes DotSo of the Somalia Federal Government!
