Analysis by Liibaan: Puntland's Wartime Enterprises

[NASSIR]

October 10, 2010

 

Puntland in 2010 has a few in common with  Puntland in 2002 when forces led by Mohamud Musse Hersi (Puntland president 2005-2009) waged hit and run attacks against Puntland security forces. It was the  decision to remove Abdullahi Yusuf  Ahmed (Puntland president  1998-2004) to be  replaced by by Jama Ali Jama that threw Puntland into a security  crisis.  Traditional leaders elected the first Puntland president and disagreed on his removal, causing supporters of Jama Ali  Jama to take up arms  and set up a base at Ceel Afwayn where Somaliland administration supplied the  militias of Mr Hersi with arms although Mr Jama Ali Jama renounced violence when his forces were defeated in 2002. The clashes between the Puntland forces and Hersi’s militia nearly dragged Puntland into clan warfare.  Former  Puntland president Abdullahi Yusuf described Shimbraale, a place where a group of Hersi’s militia  regrouped, a terrorism base.

 

Talks were organised by traditional  leaders led by Boqor Bur Madow who brought Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Mohamud Musse Hersi together for talks, and facilitated  the absorption of disaffected sub-clan militia into the Puntland security forces.  This conflict resolution initiative paved the way for the sub-clan militia  leader, Mr  Hersi, to win Puntland presidential selection in January 2005. Mr Hersi appointed Abdirahman Farole,  a Minister of Planning but sacked him after a disagreement over policies.  In 2006 “  Gunmen loyal to Planning Minister Abdurrahman Farole entered the building on Sunday, before being forced out by security forces on Monday,” BBC News reported. (Militia attack on Puntland's MPs").

 

The tension was diffused and Farole left for Australia where he gave the BBC Somali Service interviews critical  of his predecessor. In Janaury 2009 president Farole inherited a Puntland plagued by piracy, corruption and an economy run by money-printing business clique.

 

The autonomous administration’s coffers were emptied to fund the Transitional Federal Governmnet under  president  Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed  whose government lacked funds to run a parliament and cabinet  based in Baydhaba and Mogadishu.

 

Today President  Farole  faces challenges—the war between Puntland security forces and forces loyal to Sheikh Atom  who , among other things, now demands, the disbandment  of Puntland Intelligence  Service. Sool, Sanaag and Cayn  Leadership Council led by Saleban Ahmed Essa (aka Xaglatoosiye) whose supporters have withdrawn support for Puntland as a clan-based   autonomous administration is another challenge. 

 

President Farole’s response to the Sheikh Atom (regarded  by Puntland leader as a man  “  who has been  hiding out in the mountains for a few years” and  his description of SSC Leadership Council as  an “armed militia” modeled on the clan-based opposition groups of pre-1991 Somalia shows a  total failure to apply conflict resolution evenhandedly in Puntland. President  Farole admitted  the Galagala issue has been dragging on for few years but had handled it in a manner that undermined sub-clan cohesion on which Puntland is based. Puntland Intelligence Service is agency formed without clan-wide consultations. Why does a clan need to have an Intelligence Service?

 

Quoting the  former TFG president, president Farole said: “  Abdullahi Yusuf  Ahmed told me that he would not have set up an armed opposition group if he could have foreseen the disintegration  of Somalia at the hands of opposition groups,“  in reference to the SSC Leadership Council.  Somali Salvation Democratic  Front (SSDF) led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed  was the first armed opposition movement against former  military regimes of Mohamed Siyad Barre. Initially  set up by a group of clansmen as Somali Democratic Action Front (SODAF) with a base in Ethiopia, the membership of the armed group swelled after the leader was supported by his clansmen living near the border between Somalia and Ethiopia. Few members from other Somali clans joined in an attempt to make the opposition to the military regime a multi-clan initiative. The one-clan organisation image had impact on leadership decision-making and interactions between the front’s members,  causing members from other clan to set-up  a clan-based opposition groups that  eventually toppled the military  regime but failed to form a  broad-based-government . President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed benefited from failures  of SSD  and used the political skills he gained to reconcile with the leader of sub-clan militia that challenged his authority as Puntland president and campaigned to be selected as president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in 2004.

 

President Farole seems to be ignoring the need for reconciliation in Puntland but quotes a  leader whose past political failures  helped him to give concessions to his opponents  to avoid administrative collapse.

 

Liban Ahmad E-Mail:Libahm@gmail.com

[Liibaan]

Good article, lakiin Fool Faroole caqli meesha kuma hayo,

[Taleexi]

In its current political formation, Puntland needs a magnificent effort for reconciling among its stakeholders that is if it only wants to have genuine dialogue with her soon to be former regions. What is remaining may well reduced further if the direction of the state not altered.

[Taleexi]

Liibaanow madaxda cayda ka daa....

[Thankful]

Analysis by Liibaan

Lol, it's as if he is important!

 

The man is factually incorrect! The battle between Yusuf and Muse was done in Duudo, Puntland. There was no hit and run tactics taking place, it was one big battle and that was it. Yusuf accused Jama Ali Jama of having been influence by Abdiqasim and other terrorists but never Cade Muse.

 

So Cade's forces regrouped in Shimbraale and not Ceel Afweyne???

 

Liibaan has no clue about history or chooses to make things up!

 

It's sad that someone would post this garbage or call this a good article despite its so many inaccuracies.

 

If it's bashing Puntland who cares if he has many lies right?

[Taleexi]

The likes of Thankful are making PL entity to be more and more one sub clan enclave and enterprise...... History attests that Galgala conflict was treated differently than Yusuf vs Ali Jama....... Don't PL broke it thus, must own it.