By: Yusuf M Hasan
BUHODLE (Somalilandsun) – A Somaliland citizen is nursing bullet wounds at a hospital in Buhodle.
The mother of two sustained the injuries during confrontations between residents of Buhodle and by heavily armed Puntland Soldiers dispatched from Garowe town by authorities of the administrative region of Somalia.
According to journalist Feisal Ahmed Karshe of the government owned Dawan media group the skirmishes between the residents and Puntland soldiers supported by some local militia started in the early morning of Saturday when the invading troops started firing heavy machine guns in order to deter movement by people.
“After initial subsidized the now angry residents started hurling stones and other objects at the Garowe soldiers and their tiny band local boys bribed to support the provocative armed incursion” said Feisal originally from Buhodle now based in Hargeisa.
Further reports indicate that the battered invaders who upon losing not only the support of their few local militia that decamped and joined forces with the residents, decided to seek refuge at the local police station where they also detained a number of captured residents.
The irate crowd not being satisfied with the tactical retreat and shouting “GET OUT OF SOMALILAND, GO BACK TO GAROWE” stormed the police station where they not only released their comrades but killed nine of the invaders from Puntland and injured numerous.
Once completely overpowered by Peoples power, the officer commanding the Puntland troops begged for mercy in exchange for immediate evacuation from within borders of Somaliland.
The leaderless and gallant Somalilanders upon consultations agreed go the request on condition that the soldiers from Garowe surrender their ordnance, retain their vehicles and depart.
Having left their entire catalogue of weaponry inside the police station the battered intruders and including their dead and injured left the town in haste under escort by Puntland flag burning residents of Buhodle.
Less the injured mother of two, the counter Puntland incursion operation by residents concluded successfully but with a heavy loss of public and private property.
Upon ensuring the Puntlanders were out of their domain the jubilant populace complete their operation at the Buhodle stadium where hundreds participated in Puntland flag burning
For the gallant citizens of Somaliland resident in Buhodle, a town prone with attacks by invading foreigners this is the second time for them to deter incursions following a similar incident in the recent past.
On the 20th March this year an attempt to kidnap a religious teacher by a heavily armed Liyuu Police (Special Force) platoon from the Zone five Somali administrative region of Ethiopia was foiled by young girls in a residential estate of the town.
While one girl was injured during scuffles with ten of the invaders from zone five, the young heroines of Buhodle not only managed to whisk their teacher out of harms’ but disarm the well trained special force officers.
In the meantime where was the 250 strong contingent of Somaliland army troops stationed in the town during the skirmishes between unarmed residents and heavily armed trained soldiers not to mention rumours that the ZU-23, a Soviet type mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled auto cannon used by the invading puntlanders actual belonged to the locally based troops?
Despite the unquestionable heroics of Buhodle residents the absence of their senior regional administrators during times of need is questionable though not a deterrence
During the current incident in which stone throwing citizens managed to evict heavily armed foreign troops from not only their town but Somaliland at large the Buhodle regional governor Osman Isse Mohamed, Mayor Osman Yusuf and police commander Abdirahman Khalif Ahmed were in Hargeisa where they remain ensconced and without uttering any words of congratulations or explanatory as per their mission in the capital city.
Is their mission in Hargeisa as a result of advanced information about the invasion from Puntland that Somalilandsun has learned was intent on facilitating the 17th anniversary commemorating establishment of the Somalia regional administration held annually on the 1st August, as arranged by its Vice president.
Abdihakin Haji Abdulahi Omar Amey the Puntland VP who is originally from Somaliland had reportedly promised his boss president Abdiweli Gas that come shine or rain war or peace the 14th Puntland National Day anniversary shall be commemorated in his Buhodle hometown as a show of his cross border politic might.
For Gas this promise was dear since it was in line with his 2014 presidential campaign pledge of annexing areas in Eastern Somaliland inhabited by Warsengli and Dulbahante sub-clans from his Harti clan as per the dictates of Article 3 of his Somalia administrative regions’ constitution which reads
Article 3. Territory, Borders and Its Inviolability and Sacredness
1. The territorial sovereignty of Puntland shall extend to: East Region of Bari, Nugal, Sool, South Togdher (Buhodle District), Mudug except the Districts of Hobyo and Haradhere and Sanaag Region except the District of El-Afweyn and Northeast of Erigavo District.
2. The Puntland Regional State borders are those they had previously with the regions and districts of Somali Republic before the Somali Civil War. The unity of Puntland is sacred and inviolable; land territory, territorial sea and the air space.
Unfortunately this has become a tall order to achieve as exemplified by events like those at Buhodle on 1st Aug 2015 and numerous others.
