Galgala: Haylan Chiefs release a communique urging Puntland to withdraw its militia

[Thankful]

JB what are your thoughts on the SSC and their constant attacks on your militia. You seem so opinionated on issue outside your enclave.

[Jacaylbaro]

We're talking about Galgala here adeer .....

[Thankful]

nice try - I see it is easy to give advice for other people issues, but not your own!

[Jacaylbaro]

Does my advice even matter ?? ,,, I don't think those Chiefs read SOL ...

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by General Duke:

This communiqué is false and even the authors know it. The dating error gave it away.

BBC--through Somali Public Radio (MP3), August 28, 2010

 

 

I just listened the whole interview through my blackberry. Will make brief summary and analysis should time permit.

[NASSIR]

Originally posted by The Zack:

Nassir,

 

How can the chiefs ask Puntland to leave? Isn't galgala part of Puntland? Are they saying they are not part of Puntland any more?

Zack, reverse this question and ask yourself whether the Chinese exploration team should have heeded the ONLF warning since at least there's an admin in that region. This is a resource conflict saxib with two or three variables making part of the equation. Use the principle of isolation and solve the R problem.

[NASSIR]

Fyi, Zack.

 

The daily newspaper

Sydney Morning Herald

reported on

April 21, 2006

a bloody conflict between the clan militias of

Sheikh Mohamed Said Atam

and the former governor of Puntland, Mohamed Muse Hiris (Adde) over the mineral exploration rights that Puntland had granted to Range Resources.  

 

The article also informed the investors of the desperate hunt for oil and minerals in conflict zone areas of Africa. The actors of both conflicts are of the same men but the arena in which it has been played has changed as well as the outcome. The Morning Herald stated,  

 

“”In a sign of just how desperate oil companies are becoming to replace reserves, a mystery "oil major" has signed a letter of intent with Range Resources. Range has the rights to 50.1 per cent of the oil and minerals in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland in Somalia - a place that oil majors like Houston's Conoco abandoned in the face of civil war 15 years ago.The civil war is over in that part of Somalia. But the ********** clan is upset at the Puntland Government's handling of the Range deal and Somali sources report 10 people have died in

clashes with the president's militia

in thee lasst month.

[Thankful]

The daily newspaper Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 21, 2006 a bloody conflict between the clan militias of Sheikh Mohamed Said Atam and the former governor of Puntland, Mohamed Muse Hiris (Adde) over the mineral exploration rights that Puntland had granted to Range Resources.

 

The article also informed the investors of the desperate hunt for oil and minerals in conflict zone areas of Africa. The actors of both conflicts are of the same men but the arena in which it has been played has changed as well as the outcome. The Morning Herald stated,

 

“”In a sign of just how desperate oil companies are becoming to replace reserves, a mystery "oil major" has signed a letter of intent with Range Resources. Range has the rights to 50.1 per cent of the oil and minerals in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland in Somalia - a place that oil majors like Houston's Conoco abandoned in the face of civil war 15 years ago.The civil war is over in that part of Somalia. But the ********** clan is upset at the Puntland Government's handling of the Range deal and

Somali sources

report 10 people have died in clashes with the president's militia in thee lasst month.

Fyi Nassir, if you want to use Somali sources, then let’s see what the same news outlet says about the current situation and not what happened over 4 years ago (like the article you posted)! Remember Atam has been singled out by the neutral UN. So if you are defending Atam and saying the conflict is about resources, then you are defending a man that is on a watch list for terrorist activities and a man that said an international wanted terrorist group was his brothers.

 

You can't just selectively choose what articles you agree with and then ignore the others!

 

Sydney Morning Herald

 

Fears of a new Tora Bora in Somalia Mustafa Haji Abdinur

July 22, 2010

.AFP

 

A notorious warlord and arms dealer is training Islamist fighters in the remote mountains of northern Somalia and setting up what local officials fear could become a new Tora Bora.

 

Mohamed Said Atom, one of a handful of men singled out by the UN Security Council as violating an arms embargo on Somalia, has established bases in the Sanaag mountains straddling Puntland and Somaliland, a senior security official said.

 

The al Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgent group has been mainly active in southern and central Somalia in recent years, focusing its military efforts on trying to topple the western-backed government in Mogadishu.

 

But the July 11 bombings in Kampala claimed by the Shebab have signalled the group's expanding reach, and activity by Atom's men in Sanaag has stirred concern that the rebels were now poised to destablise the two breakaway states.

 

"Atom has links with al-Qaeda and represents the Shebab in the region," said Colonel Mohamed Jama, a senior security official from the semi-autonomous state of Puntland.

 

"We are receiving information that he has mobilised hundreds of Islamist militants in the villages around Sanaag Bari," Jama said.

 

"Our security forces are now fully prepared to launch an offensive against those terrorists who are establishing a safe haven in the region and want to disrupt our stability," he added.

 

Puntland and the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland, to the east, have been more stable than central and southern Somalia in recent years but they have been wary of late that the Shebab might seek to open up new fronts.

 

Residents in eastern Puntland's Galgala said that at least 400 fighters were mobilised and trained recently across the region and added that the Shebab's black flag was flying in some villages.

 

"The number of Islamist militants gathered by Atom in the region has increased dramatically. We see some of them on pickups with heavy machine guns and RPGs, proselytising," said Hussein Sahal, a Galgala elder.

 

"They have several military camps in the mountains where they train young men, most of them from the region. It will be very difficult for any army to fight against them," Abdi Haji Sugule, another elder, said.

 

The Golis mountain range marking the unrecognised border between Puntland and Somaliland is arid, honeycombed with caves and very difficult to access, a terrain officials fear could become the ideal hideout for al-Qaeda in Somalia.

 

"Atom is a local but has old connections with a number of Islamist networks worldwide," said Bile Mohamoud, a security official in Puntland's economic capital Bosasso.

 

Atom, from the ********** clan, was born in Galgala around 1966 and has led his local militia since at least 2006. The UN group monitoring the arms embargo describes him as an arms trafficker and key supplier of weapons to the Shebab.

 

"We believe he wants to turn this place, the most impenetrable mountains in Somalia, into an al-Qaeda hideout," Mohamoud said.

 

"This part of the country is very strategic and important for men like him who are on the run. You cannot flush out a trained army from those mountains unless you have hi-tech military hardware."

 

"It's like Tora Bora in Afghanistan," he said, in reference to the cave complex where Osama bin Laden and top Taliban leaders were believed to be hiding in the country's eastern mountains when US forces attacked in 2001.

 

Abdi Saleban, a Somaliland security official based in Erigavo, the largest town in the area, also acknowledged that Atom was gaining strength but insisted that his forces were ready to face him.

 

"We know about the movements of this al-Qaeda-linked militant in the mountains but our forces are ready and on high alert," he said.

[General Duke]

^^^ Spot on brother, it's remarkable how Puntland with all it's percieved weakness manage to flush him out so easily for him to resort to hit and run tactics.