Ceerigaabo Forced Displacement: No Justice for the Dispossessed

[Deeq A.]

President Deni endorsed the jurisdiction of the Somaliland administration in Ceerigaabo but did not call for any criminal investigations into the crimes committed by militias allied with Somaliland administration.

Badhan (Letter sent by email) — I have read the editorial on the political statement by the Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni regarding the situation in Ceerigaabo. President Deni did not explicitly mention the  dispossession and loss of life caused by militias organised by Buurmadow and other warmongering traditional leaders. Earlier this week, Buurmadow claimed that only his  clansmen, of the Isaq lineage, have a right to live in Ceerigaabo peacefully.

These violations occurred shortly after Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi was elected in November 2024. Militias loyal to the Somaliland administration looted businesses, homes and killed and maimed Somali unionists.

President Deni endorsed the jurisdiction of the Somaliland administration in Ceerigaabo but did not call for any criminal investigations into the crimes committed by militias allied with Somaliland administration. Victims have a right to live in Ceerigaabo and to receive compensation for the incompetence  and connivance of the Somaliland administration when militia mobs from Burco carried out the forced displacement of Somali citizens in Ceerigaabo.

Earlier this week, Buurmadow claimed that only his clansmen, of the Isaq lineage, have a right to live in Ceerigaabo peacefully.

President Deni said that the victims of the forced displacement “are from Puntland”, yet no legal processes have been initiated in Puntland to record the extent of the damage, deaths and injuries suffered in Ceerigaabo by the displaced and dispossessed persons.

The Puntland President’s advocacy for the property rights of Puntlanders who have been forcibly displaced from Ceerigaabo is at odds with his downplaying of the total breakdown of the 1995 Ceerigaabo Agreement at the hands of the Somaliland administration. 

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