WDM EDITORIAL: GOVERNMENT INACTION IS PUNTLAND’S BIGGEST THREAT

Executive Summary

Puntland’s gravest threat is not foreign invasion but government inaction. The blood spilled in Garowe’s elections has gone unanswered; criminals roam free, emboldened by silence. Now, Mogadishu-aligned actors shift their operations into Garowe itself, embedding within clan networks and pushing SSC-style alternatives to hollow Puntland from within—while President Deni looks away, chasing Villa Somalia. Refusal to enforce the law is complicity. Each unpunished crime invites the next; each silence cedes sovereignty. Puntland is not a pawn on Mogadishu’s chessboard. It demands leadership with courage to defend its institutions before the point of no return.

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Full Editorial

The law is not ornamental prose for dusty shelves nor a polite suggestion to be ignored at will. It is the foundation of governance—the shield that protects rulers and ruled alike. When broken and left unenforced, it ceases to be law at all. What follows is impunity, and impunity is the slow poison that kills a state from within.

Puntland today stands at that precipice. Pre-election violence that should have provoked swift justice was buried under silence. Who answers for the blood spilled in Garowe during the last election cycle? Dozens of lives were lost—yet not a single perpetrator has been held to account. Instead, those responsible are emboldened, regrouping and destabilizing Puntland from Mogadishu and Laascaanood, daring the state to act. They test the limits of our patience and sovereignty with confidence that there will be no reckoning.

And what has been the response from the Deni Administration? A studied look in the other direction. Call it cowardice, call it cynical calculation—the result is the same: Puntland’s stability pawned off for short-term political convenience. Worse still, these dark forces are not hiding in caves or compounds. They walk freely in Garowe itself—the seat of government—shielded by clan structures and emboldened by local advocates. This is not merely negligence; it is betrayal.

What is the broader plan? The shift of political operations from Mogadishu into Garowe is no accident. It is a calculated strategy to destabilize Puntland at its core while Deni’s focus drifts toward Villa Somalia. Federal-aligned actors have perfected this playbook: infiltrate through local allies, fuel clan divisions, and legitimize alternative administrations like SSC-Khaatumo to chip away at Puntland’s territorial and political coherence. The aim is simple—hollow Puntland from within while presenting Mogadishu as the indispensable center of power.

President Deni seems to believe appeasement will smooth his way to the throne of Villa Somalia. But Puntland is not a pawn on Mogadishu’s chessboard. It is a hard-won state, built with blood, sacrifice, and struggle. To gamble with its security for personal ambition is a sin history does not forgive. The price of inaction will be fragmentation: Garowe reduced to a hollow capital, districts peeling away under the lure of federal patronage, and Puntland’s bargaining power within the union stripped bare.

Let us be clear: refusing to enforce the law is not neutrality—it is complicity. Every crime unpunished becomes an invitation to the next. Every silence from leadership is an endorsement of chaos. Each failure to act chips away at Puntland’s sovereignty until nothing is left but a fragile shell ripe for takeover.

Leaders who trade their people’s future for personal gain are condemned not by rhetoric but by history itself. Puntland deserves more than silence, more than cowardice, more than transactional politics. It demands leadership that defends its institutions, enforces its laws, and shields its people. The hour is late, but not yet past saving—if courage replaces calculation before the point of no return.