Yeey's Appeal to his Clansmen to stop supply of Arms to Bakaaraha

[OLOL]

13. With regard to the second factor affecting arms supplies to BAM, the Monitoring Group believes that Abdullahi Yusuf, TFG President and former President of Puntland, is very well aware of BAM arms-supply channels and the fact that members of the opposition were the principal beneficiaries of arms sales at BAM. The Monitoring Group learned that, accordingly, about the beginning July 2005, President Yusuf took two decisions that ultimately affected the overall availability of arms for sale at BAM:

 

(a) he blocked the use of the port of Bossaso for dhows delivering arms destined for BAM and attempted to block all roads that the arms traders use in Puntland to convey the arms to Mogadishu, and

 

(b) he further made a deal with arms dealers based in Puntland from his clan — '***** ' — not to supply arms to BAM, providing the reason that the arms would ultimately go to the opposition in Mogadishu, which is preparing to use the arms to fight fellow clan members — '***** ' militias — from Puntland. The Monitoring Group believes that the effect of this action is a noticeable downturn in arms shipments reaching BAM and of sales to key opposition members buying there.

 

14. It must be recalled from the two previous Monitoring Group reports that the network of arms traders relies heavily on the port of Bossaso and the road infrastructure of Puntland to effectively move supplies of arms to BAM. It must also be recalled from past reports that the larger arms dealers at BAM have storage facilities. Therefore, any actions intended to affect the availability of arms at BAM,such as the ones taken by President Yusuf, would necessarily have a delayed impact on overall availability at any given time, depending on demand and stocks available.