Tag: Mudugh

WDM BREAKING NEWS

ONE DAY IS SAID TO BE A LONG TIME IN POLITICS.

and THREE MONTHS MONTHS REMAING IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE OF CURRENT PUNTLAND GOVERNMENT ARE LIFETIME TO HOLD AN ELECTION.

Puntland Administration can feasibly conduct the proposed State Presidential and Parliament Elections on One Person One Vote exercises, given the bulk of legislative bills and electoral laws required are already in place, and over 400,000 voters are registered with the option of registering more voters throughout the regions.

In all probability, districts opposing even holding District Council Elections could boycott the General Elections as well, instigating the rest of state residents to by-pass Nugaal Region again. Thus, Nugaal Region risks forfeiting its allocated Members in Puntland State House of Representatives. If that were to happen, Puntland Capital City of Garowe would have no representation in Puntland Parliament. From there, chain reactions would ensue that could compel relocation of Capital City elsewhere because of potential apperance of clan-based insurgency n the Middle Region of Puntland against the State, followed by attempts to suppress these destabilizing armed rebellion by Puntland forces from Bari and Mudugh Regions with the assistance of forces from SSC, the so-called “Hiil Walaal” army to deter existential security threat to Puntland State.

When the dust of such potential conflict settles, residents of Nugaal Region would be required to renegotiate for a political space and participation again in Puntland governance structures, but probably Garowe would lose its Capital Status as a result.

Let us think now before we leap into the unknown.

(This WDM breaking news has been updated since posting).

Heshiiska Gobolka Mudug 1994 Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed iyo Mohamed Farah Caydid

BOSASO REPORT

According to residents and eyewitness reports, the Red Sea Port City of Bosaso is coping with uneasy peace as two opposing Puntland forces are facing each other, each one monitoring the other as who would start shooting first. In the mix, are Bari clans and subclans getting ready for the next clashes by stockpiling arms and ammunition. Certain quarters of the Port City are no go at night. Regional authorities are worried and their security resources are no match with the arsenal of the confronting forces there. City commercial activities are greatly impacted and there is capital flight to Hargeisa and Mogadishu. Consumer confidence is at lowest level amid insecurity, worsened by high inflation on basic goods and energy.

Puntland Government shows no signs of urgency to seriously address and fundamentally resolve the impendimg security crisises in Bosaso and Galkayo. It looks that the recent Federal Elections had taken life and initiative out of current Puntland political leadership. The situation is worsened by confusion and news blackouts. Nobody knows what is happening in Puntland. Leadership is reportedly isolated. Titled traditional elders are either compromised, absent from the country or part of the insecurity in Bari and Mudugh.

Barring effective government intervention, Puntland stability enjoyed for a long time in the past could be in jeopardy.

WHY BOTH SIDES OF MUDUGH REGION IS IN SIMMERING POLITICAL CRISIS

North Mudugh Region and Galmudugh State are both in crisis of identity, political and traditional leadership vacuum, with elders in North Mudugh heavily politicized and predominantly absent in the Region most of the time, and political leadership in Galmudugh having no vision and in disarray because of President Qoor Qoor’s unstable temperament and shifting positions.

Geopolitics is a factor with regards to regional stability or instability, depending on a given situation. Peace-making and political harmony in the regions of Mudugh (North and South) are interlinked. The security turmoil in Galmudugh with violence from Al-shabab, its volatile leadership character and fluid relationships with Farmajo have exposed Galmudugh weaknesses, a situation that prevented them from pursuing coherent policy objectives that was being encouraged recently by Galmudugh elders and intellectuals to live in peace within and with others in the neighborhood. Galmudugh political and security disarray have geopolitical impact also on residents of North Mudugh. Destabilising factors from Farmajo Team of Puntland origin have indirect role to play in the manufactured political noises in Galkayo of late regarding the planned Federal elections. There are some residents of North Galkayo and persons of Mudugh origin now playing with fire, while jeopardizing the recent gains of the Region such as the construction of one of the biggest seaports in the African sub-region, successful security operations against Al-Shabab and planned repairs of Garowe-Galkayo Road, among other projects. This is typical Somali nomadic character that prosperity brings violence and instability to the people of Somalia.

People should wise up and learn from their past mistakes.

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THE STORY OF “HASHII BOQOL”

By Ismail Warsame
Opinion Columnist

The story goes that a Somali nomad hailing from Mudugh Region brought a camel to Galkayo market to sell. At camel market, he was offered a price of thousand Shillings. He rejected the offer, saying he wouldn’t sell his camel less than a hundred Shillings. Surprised, the buyer found out that the seller of the camel never handled money more than a hundred Shillings before.

This story resembles today’s obsession of most Somali high ranking officials with the insane pursuit of membership in Somalia’s Federal Parliament.There are ministers at all levels of government, MPs of regional states, regional governors etc, who are desperately campaigning to go to Mogadishu as members of Somalia’s Federal Parliament. Aren’t they all “HASHII BOQOL”?

Until people of Somalia get the opportunity to elect their representative governments, every unqualified Cilmi, Cawaale and Caasha would show up to be an unvetted and unaccountable member of Somalia’s ruling bodies at national and state levels.

Let us eliminate the chance of Hashii Boqol by conducting credible general elections.

https://amazon.com/author/ismailwarsame

THE TERRITORY OF HAITI WAS A FOREST JUNGLE, TODAY IT IS A SEMMI-DESERT. SOMALIA IS NEXT, IF NOT ALREADY THERE.

A sad story on the deterioration of Puntland environment was related to me tonight by the Adviser of Puntland President, Abdirisaq Gawiido. After a brief visit to Galkayo, Gawiido has been raising an alarm on incidents he was briefed by Mudugh elders on the destructive environmental trends in the Region, and certainly, beyond it in Puntland State. These include wanton destruction by cutting down trees and massive commercial hunting of wild game in Mudugh and Burtinle areas. According to eyewitness report, one man alone has been spotted having a truckload of captured and slaughtered dik dik and antelopes in Galkayo. Similar stories were reported from the town of Burtinle in Nugaal Region. One dik dik is said to be sold under $1 to a displaced family in the yearly multiplying camps around Puntland urban centres.

Man-made environmental deterioration has no bounds in Puntland, perhaps, throughout Somalia. We hear horror stories of burning entire forest into charcoal in Jubaland with piles of sacks of coal at Kismayo Port for export to the Gulf states.

Destruction of fish habitat in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean by illegal foreign trawlers with worldwide banned fishing gears and dumping of industrial toxic wastes have been going on for decades now. Sea piracy was considered security threat to the rest of the world, but dumping of toxic waste is treated as local issue with indifference to the health hazards it posed to the local coastal communities.

What to do about it? For sure, there is no absence of laws on environmental protection in Puntland. These laws are collecting dust in the departmental shelves of the government of Puntland State and the House of Representatives. Laws, when unforced, do not exist. What you need here is a task force empowered to implement these laws, with attachment of experts and media campaign to bring awareness of the problem to the society, especially among the rural population. Puntland Ministry of the Environment should be activated with the formation of a task-force working closely with all levels of the government, including city councils to attend this existential threat on daily basis as a priority Puntland Government Environmental Policy. It is worth noting that even the Italian Colonial Administration then had a contingent of soldiers called “Duubcad” by the natives. They were tasked to keep the peace among the nomads and prevent environmental abuses.

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There are some suggestions on introducing new methods of making stables to the herd owners. Providing the nomadic population with barbed wires in stable-making to prevent cutting down trees is one option. Others advise for the construction of stables with the use of stone fence like they do in Sanaag.

If the environmental deterioration of Puntland is not reversed, this country would look like the Western Hemisphere country of Haiti, with its consequences of poverty, diseases and backwardness.

https://amazon.com/author/ismailwarsame

KA BAXAY BACAADWEYN, MUDUGH, PUNTLAND, SOMALIA

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3901979086547189&id=1722832937795159&sfnsn=mo

WHY THE PORT OF GARA’AD IS NEEDED – A BRIEF PERSONAL ACCOUNT

Attention: National and international dignitaries as well as major business community will gather in Gara’ad on the shores of the Indian Ocean for the official Opening Ceremony of Gara’ad Port next week, a major Puntland community investment. The project is one of the biggest infrastructure undertakings in Africa. The host is Puntland State President, Said Abdullahi Deni. At least one thousand guests are scheduled to attend the Ceremony.

A Personal Account

It was 1997 when a delegation of now defunct National Salvation Council (NSC), the Sodare Group, led by then Co-Chairmen Abdullahi Yusuf and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, went to Mogadishu to meet with an Italian envoy sent to mediate conflicting Mogadishu Warlords of Hussein Aideed, Ali Mahdi and Late Osman Ali Ato. I was one of that 13-member strong delegation. The intention of the Italian Envoy, Senator Serri, a deputy minister of the Italian Foreign Ministry, was to re-introduce Italy’s influence to the re-emerging Somalia from the Civil War. The idea was for Italy to be ahead of everyone else in the game of influencing Somalia as a former colonial power and power broker as the country re-instates itself from the total collapse as a failed state. The Italians believed that the obstacle to Somalia’s recovery was the warring factions of Banadir Region at the time. They had money incentives to bribe the warlords into accepting an Italian-brokered deal. Ali Mahdi wanted a piece of the cake. Abdullahi Yusuf planned to foil the Italian efforts as he thought the Italian policy was wrong-headed as he believed that Somalia couldn’t be reconstructed from the Centre, but rather from “Building-Blocks” as federated states. There was a deep mistrust between Aideed and Ato since the killing of Aideed Sr. The Italian Envoy’s mission to Mogadishu ended in spectacular fiasco to the pleasure of Abdullahi Yusuf.

Back in Nairobi enroute to Italy, and commenting on the unexpected Yusuf’s presence in Mogadishu, Senator Serri called a hasty press briefing during which he declared; “We were struck by an eagle in town”.

After two weeks in Mogadishu, we returned to Addis Ababa, the Headquarters of the NSC, to prepare for a national congress to be held in Bosaso, the North-eastern Regions of Somalia. Egypt, with the help of the traditional Ethiopian foreign policy naïveté on Somalia’s internal dynamics, had successfully undermined both the NSC and IGAD efforts to hold that National Reconciliation Congress in Bosaso. One would recall the failed Somali Peace Conference in Cairo in 1997, resulting in the demise of both the Sodare Group and “Salbalaar Government” of Hussein Farah Aideed.

While in Mogadishu, we held non-stop private and public discussions with many groups, representing all walks of life. These people had two nagging questions for us to answer:

  1. “How do we participate in the planned National Reconciliation Congress in Bosaso”?
  2. “Why don’t you construct a Gara’ad Port? Bosaso Port is too far from us”.

At the time, Mogadishu Port was un-operational and closed to business. Still residents of Central Somalia thought a Gara’ad port would be very convenient for them even if Mogadishu Port were functional. At that time they were using land transport to and from Bosaso Port.

In Addis Ababa, residents from Eastern Ethiopia are land-locked as it is in the rest of the country. They were very much interested in the construction of a nearby seaport as Gara’ad.

The commercial potential of the Gara’ad Port for Somalia and Ethiopia is huge. The economic and security importance of the port in the entire region is, without doubt, very high. I strongly believe that a Gara’ad seaport would be the most convenient outlet to the Indian Ocean for the peoples of Central Somalia and Eastern Ethiopia for quick movement of goods and services along stable and secure corridor.

By Ismail Warsame

Ismailwarsame@gmail.com

@ismailwarsame