Somalia: Puntland MPs worry about security after wave of Al Shabaab attacks

GAROWE, Somalia, May 9, 2015 (Garowe Online)-Lawmakers in Somalia’s Puntland parliament said they are concerned with the security situation as Al Shabaab continues to target government officials and foreigners in apparently coordinated terror attacks, Garowe Online reports.

On Saturday, MP Abdiasis Saed Mohamud told the media that unprecedented terror attacks have made the security situation extremely volatile.

“Puntland security is in perils today, I call on the government of Prof. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali to pay serious attention to the prevailing situation. I wish what’s going on now can’t be watched, and I don’t like Puntland people to live in fear,” Mohamud said a day after Al Shabaab gunmen shot and killed Puntland lawmaker and his body guard in front of a mosque in Galkayo’s vast north.

Puntland Parliament Speaker Saed Hassan Shire has condemned the killing of late MP Saed Hussein Nur (Agole), asking security agencies to bring perpetrators to justice as soon as possible.

On May 4, Al Shabaab militants briefly took control of army base situated 45km south-east of Bossaso port city.

Militants have honed military-style ambushes, grenade attacks and bombings, largely in the state’s most populous city, Bossaso.

On April 20, Four UNICEF staffers were killed along with two Somali security escorts after Al Shabaab suicide bomber blew himself up in front of main UN compound in the state capital of Garowe.

In early March, Puntland Army Chief faulted bad weather condition and rough topography for the slow advances against Al Shabaab fighters in Galgala and on battlegrounds along Golis Mountain Ranges.

Al Shabaab militants lost a string of strategic towns in central and southern Somalia in intense military campaign by allied forces.

Ever since, experts have been warning that remnants could wreak havoc in the stable state.

8-member panel of UN investigators accused Puntland President of ‘catch and release’ policy, pointing to the surge in terror operations in confidential report in October 2014. 

GAROWE ONLINE