By: Yumoha Pasha
GAROWE (Somalilandsun) – The residents of Somaliland’s Sanaag and Sool regions are completely anti-Puntland.
This was stated by the deputy interior minister of the Somalia administrative region of Puntland Abdiaziz Mohamed Aden during a press briefing in Garowe.
The security minister was responding to what action the government of Puntland was going to take following the heavy deployment of forces by the republic of Somaliland in Taleh and Hengalool districts and Garowe’s support for Khatumo secessionists.
Puntland has for ages contested the administrative rights to the entire Sool region and parts of Eastern Sanaag which are integral parts of Somaliland.
This dispute which various administrations of Puntland have pursued by sponsoring malcontents in the areas has seen a major setback after the Somaliland army deterred the holding of Khatumo III clan conference in Taleh.
Similarly the dispatch of heavily armed army commandoes to Hengalool district in the east of Sanaag by the government of Somaliland have put an end to a plan clan conference to have been sponsored by Puntland.
“To call a spade a spade apart from a few politicians the people of East Sanaag and Sool regions are completely pro-Somaliland thence the Puntland interests are an exercise in futility” said the minister Abdiaziz Mohamed Aden
This public acknowledgment by a senior Garowe official is in effect in effect an official statement dispelling the myth of love between Puntland and residents of the said areas it purports to contest.
The machinations of Puntland in these areas though now being faced with the might of power are nothing more than an irksome attempt to mar the internationally acknowledge peaceful co-existence in Somaliland.
The minister’s utterances is further proof that the now and then thought dispute between Puntland and their Khatumoist acolytes from Sool region has dissipated in thin air.
Now the big question is will the tensions along the Somaliland and Somalia border cease?
