Puntland Wakes Up to Futility of Parallel Forces

[Deeq A.]

Puntland State President Said Abdullahi Deni faces a formidable challenge to his security reform agenda.

Garowe (PP News Desk) — In January 2009, when MPs elected Abdirahman Farole the fourth President of Puntland, he sought to address ungovernability resulted by parallel security forces . The former Puntland Intelligence Service, a security outfit funded by a foreign country, was unaccountable to Garowe Presidency.

Nearly thirteen years after Farole’s security reform campaign, a similar problem faces President Said Abdulahi Deni whose decision to sack Puntland Security Forces Commander remains unenforceable. Mohamud Osman Abdullahi, the PSF Commander, claims that Puntland State government had politicised the force that keeps Al-shabaab terrorists at bay. A senior PSF official held a press conference in Bosaso and justified the decision by the senior commanders to vacate Galgala and Sugure frontlines.

Major General Yasin Dhere: “PSF violated the law when its forces have vacated the frontlines.”

“To intimidate us Puntland government deployed troops to cut links between our forces at the frontlines and in Bosaso. Our base in Bosaso is under siege. For those reasons we have decided to leave the frontlines where we were fighting Al-shabaab” said the PSF officer.

The Commander of Puntland Defence Forces Major General Yasin Omar Dhere accused with PSF leadership of destabilising Bosaso. “PSF forces are influencing security forces to mutiny. It is illegal to vacate the frontlines” said General Yasin.

PSF is funded by a foreign country, and claims to operate outside Puntland political system.

In a statement released by PSF, it criticised Puntland State government for political expediency to undermine a force “that is impartial in Puntland politics”. “PSF has the mandate to fight terrorists. It does not accept the logic of security operation by groups that collaborated with the enemy” reads the statement.

Mohamed Ismail Siibad, a Puntland Parliament MP and Chairman of Mustaqbal, a political association, called on Puntland State government to ease the political and security pressures on Bosaso, “a district that has been politically and economically marginalised.”

© Puntland Post, 2021

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