The Media Line Puntland: Somalia's Struggling Success Story

[Somalia] In 1998, Puntland declared that its territory should be treated as an autonomous state. However, unlike its neighbor Somaliland and bordering Ethiopia, a self-proclaimed and secessionist state to the west, Puntland maintains that it does not aspire to international endorsement as an independent government.

It strongly affirms that it wants to remain an integral part of the Somali Republic: Puntland residents refuse to refer to themselves as Puntlanders, but call themselves Somalis. The majority of Somaliland’s residents defiantly refer to themselves as Somalilanders.

The first Puntland president was Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who served three years in the position until 2001; he became Somalia’s president in October 2004, resigning in December 2008 following a bitter dispute with the former prime minister Nor Hassan Hussein.

Puntland has emerged largely unscathed from the perennial violence that has engulfed much of southern Somalia, although there have been some spates of hostility mainly with neighboring Somaliland over disputed territories including the Sool and Sanaag regions.

There has also been some bloodshed during several usually brief flareups of clan fighting and political power struggles.

Most of the people in the region come from the same clan – the Majarteen clan of Abdullahi Yusuf, the former president of Somalia’s transitional federal government.

Puntland’s attempts to sign an oil exploration agreement with the Australian Stock Exchange (SAX) without authorization from Somali government caused a heated dispute between former prime minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi and the former president Yusuf after Ghedi rejected the agreement saying, “it is not regional topic but a national one.”

The exploration for minerals, oil and gas in the main resources areas of Dharoor and Nugaal Valley has drawn criticism from within Puntland, Somalia and abroad as the minerals, oil and gas economy has become an engine powering conflict and war in northern Somalia.

Since exploration began, Puntland has been at odds with Somaliland as the two neighboring regions appear to be embroiled in a land dispute.

The economy of the region relies largely on the raising and herding of livestock, with milk and dairy products being critical sources of protein in this region plagued by heat. Poor soil makes the growth of crops extremely difficult.

Many citizens of Puntland also rely on remittances from relatives abroad as sources of extra income.

Fishing also provides an important source of food and income for many in the region, but interference and intimidation of locals by foreign trawling vessels has slowed the economy and depleted fish populations.

Piracy off the Somali coast has brought huge sums of cash into parts of the region, but this money has been largely divided among a small group of individuals.

Although under the watchful eye of many foreign navies, the tuna-rich waters of the Gulf of Aden along the Puntland coast continue to see pirate attacks (although at a reduced rate) and incursions by foreign vessels.

Many ships have been hijacked and held for long periods on the coast of the region.

Puntland has a beautiful coast but is largely devoid of tourism because of the danger of possible kidnapping and the fact that some areas are rampant piracy havens.

Many Somalis are hoping that the international community will do more to stop illegal fishing and illegal dumping.

Puntland’s economy relies on the export of live seafood such as lobsters, dried fish, shark vines and tuna. Saudi Arabia has banned the import of Somali livestock, which has dealt a devastating blow to the already weak economy.

It is important to note that profits from illegal fishing in Somali waters greatly exceed the total income of the whole Somali piracy industry in any calendar year. The Laasqoray fish factory has reached commercial levels and its tuna is found throughout Puntland and outside the region. Sea salt is also being produced.

A fish-processing plant is also being constructed in Habo, which locals hope will reduce poverty and unemployment and improve the economy of the area.

Thousands of displaced Somalis have traveled to the region as it is stable compared with the south where deadly clashes have created masses of IDPs (internally displaced persons) fleeing the country.

“I came here to live safely,” Somali refugee Nadifa Ali, who fled from Mogadishu, told The Media Line (TML) in Garowe City, Puntland’s capital.

The region relies on trained police and military regional forces, which appear to have gained a reputation for establishing security in the district, although several kidnappings have taken place in the area, mostly of foreign journalists.

“Our security forces do their best to work honestly for their people,” Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamud Farole told TML by phone in Bosasso. "Foreigners come and live here without restraint.”

Farole, 63, a former PhD student in the history department at Latrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, promised huge developmental changes in the region after he was elected.

But people fleeing the poverty in the East Africa in search of better lives in Saudi Arabia through Yemen are falling victim to human trafficking cartels. Human trafficking in Bosasso, Puntland’s capital, is vying with the traditional contraband such as drugs and weapons, and is now one of its most lucrative industries.

This appalling practice has been widely condemned by the international community.

In the last 10 years, human trafficking has become the "best profession" in Puntland, 81-year-old elder Ali Hussein told TML.

He adds that the human trafficking started right after the administration was formed in 1998 after the region emerged from the civil wars in the country.

TML tried to obtain a comment from the immigration minister, but his staff said he was “busy with work.”

Many have expressed concern about how few resources are devoted to saving immigrants who are frequently abused, and even thrown overboard by ruthless smugglers on their way to the shores of Yemen.

Many Somalis and Ethiopians who try to flee to Yemen via illegal boats are forced to disembark away from the coast and often fall prey to man-eating sharks.

Carrying a small black bag on his back to board a boat to Yemen, 18-year-old Nor Yusuf tells TML that he experienced very bad unemployment along with constant violence in Mogadishu and is prepared to venture into dangerous seas.

Puntland appears silent on this tragedy as the officials slowly talk about the immigrants leaving from the region who die between Yemen and Somalia’s shores.

“We will do our best to close down this illegal trafficking that causes the deaths of many Somalis on the seas,” a Puntland minister who asked to remain anonymous told TML in Bosasso.

The United Nation suspects there is collaboration between the pirates and government officials as the government does not appear to be committed to fighting the pirates.

The office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a report saying it had identified two main piracy networks in Somalia – one in the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region and the other based in the Eyl district, a haven for pirates.

Many hijacked ships are being held on the shores of the town of Eyl, whose residents support the pirates who are made up of mostly their sons, brothers and relatives.

“We get an amount of money when our brothers seize ships,” says Fatima Abdi Hashi, an Eyl resident who spoke to TML by phone.

Another resident, Hassan Afyare, says he is happy to be in Eyl because of the economy flowing from the hijacked ships.

“I used to be unemployed, but now I’ve got more money earned by my pirate brother,” Afyare tells TML in a telephone interview.

Life is slowly improving in the region, with a number of high-level education centers opening in recent years.

Three universities have been established in the region, the main one being Bariga Africa, which means eastern Africa.

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