Former Somalia Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omar on Tuesday returned to Somaliland after a long period away.
Authorities in Somaliland have pardoned Omar for defecting to Somalia which is an offence in the breakaway region.
Radio Dalsan Reporter in Hargeisa Jamal Ibrahim says that Omar wrote a mandatory apology letter to Somaliland´s Internal Security Minister seeking pardon.
He was granted a presidential pardon before his arrival in the capital Hargeisa.
Omar served as the Foreign Affairs Minister in the Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed administration.
The former minister who has been living in London has close links to the new Somaliland President Muse Abdi Bihi and comes from a influential local family
“Two reasons allowed his return. His relations with the President and his family name in Somaliland “Abdi Yusuf a Somaliland activist based in Mogadishu told Radio Dalsan in an interview.
Ironically the Somaliland government continues to arrest young activists questioning its secession from Somalia.
In the last two weeks the authorities have jailed two activists calling for Somali unity.
The two are author Mohamed Kasey Mohamud who wrote a book in praise of Somalias President Farmaajo and poet Naema Ahmed Qorane known for her Somali unity poems.
