Historical Perspective: Puntland Was Founded on the Principle of One State, One Force

The significance of Laag extends far beyond a military engagement outside Bosaso. It reaches back to the very philosophy upon which Puntland was founded in 1998.
From its inception, Puntland rejected the warlordism that had consumed southern Somalia following the collapse of the Somali state in 1991. While Mogadishu descended into the rule of competing militias, shifting alliances, and neighbourhood warlords, Puntland’s founders consciously pursued a different path. Their objective was not merely to establish another clan administration, but to build a functioning regional state governed by law, institutions, and a unified security apparatus.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed understood a principle that remains as relevant today as it was nearly three decades ago: a government that does not control the gun cannot control the state.
Whenever signs of lawlessness emerged, the response was expected to be swift, lawful, and decisive. Political disagreements were never to become excuses for maintaining private armies or rival chains of command. The authority of the state was expected to prevail because without that authority there could be no investment, no commerce, no justice, and no lasting peace.
Laag is therefore not simply about defeating one rebellious force. It is about reaffirming the constitutional doctrine that Puntland has only one government, one command structure, and one legitimate security establishment.
Those who continue to imagine that political influence can be maintained through armed formations are living in yesterday’s Somalia. The era of warlords, self-appointed generals, and privately controlled military units brought nothing but destruction to the Somali Republic. Puntland was established precisely to escape that destructive cycle—not to reproduce it.
The lesson should resonate throughout Puntland. Political competition is legitimate. Criticism of government is legitimate. Peaceful opposition is indispensable in any constitutional order. Armed defiance of the state is not.
The monopoly over the legitimate use of force belongs exclusively to the Puntland State.
Anything less invites the very anarchy from which Puntland painstakingly rescued itself.
Laag should therefore be remembered not as the beginning of another political feud, but as the moment Puntland recommitted itself to its founding covenant: one Constitution, one government, one security command, and one rule of law.