Somalia: UN report blasts Puntland leader for security failures, corruption

GAROWE, Somalia, October 22, 2015 (Garowe Online)-United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea has blamed the President of Puntland Government, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali for failing to go after Al Shabaab militants and curb illicit sale of fishing licenses to foreign clients, Garowe Online reports.

The UN investigators said, they are concerned about the exodus of militants fleeing onslaught in central and southern Somalia northwards towards the relatively stable Puntland.

Al Shabaab militants grip on hideouts along Golis Mountain Ranges is unlikely to wane, with fresh migrants planning to keep communication line open to impoverished Yemen and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

UN monitors disclosed the increasing presence of terror elements and unprecedented upsurge in pre-planned operations, largely in the Gulf of Aden port city of Bossaso in its previous report.

“The monitoring group expects the intensity of the Galgala insurgency to increase as fleeing militants head north,” read the report dated, October 19, 2015.

The deterioration of security environment has in partly been fuelled by continually delayed pays or lack of salaries for security forces, UN report said.

Puntland Defence Forces (PDFs) are now in control of agriculture-rich village of Galgala, not surrounding villages.

“In particular the sacking in February 2015 by the President of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, of two senior security forces officials, including the head of the Puntland Intelligence Service, has created an alarming rift between the President and his security forces”.

Supported by aerial reconnaissance and US military personnel, Puntland Defence Forces pressed ahead with renewed military offensives to take back new areas from militants in early October, 2014. Despite military gains on the ground, the anti-militant push remains stalled in the rugged terrain of Galgala.

UN monitors learned that senior Al Shabaab official, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf (Shongole) arrived in Galgala in mid-March this year to coordinate terror operations inside Puntland via a new base.

The killing of four staffers with United Nations Children’s Fund on April 20, 2015 highlighted how Al Shabaab skillfully seized ‘rising internal tensions’ in Puntland according to UN report.

Experts pointed to the influx of arms and ammunition being smuggled from Yemen to Somalia-with the possibility that armed groups could be in possession of surface to air missiles among other destructive weapons.

Corruption in fishing license sales

Puntland leadership is deeply mired in illicit sales of fishing licenses like officials at federal level. UN investigators have found evidence of the sale of fishing licenses to foreign fleet in Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Officials within President Ali’s administration are believed to have conducted illicit negotiations outside the revenue-gathering apparatuses for political greed.

With the help of Dubai licensing network, trawlers benefited from large stock of valuable fish. A ‘point man’ identified as ‘Abdinor, and based in Bossaso supplied fishing licenses to Korean vessels.

Meanwhile, Iranians continue to buy Puntland licenses through Dubai Network whose broker’s name, UN monitors learned as ‘Abdulkadir’.

Between August and September, Puntland officials declined to respond to questions-over fishing licenses issued for foreign fleet-and-lodged by the 7-member panel of UN experts.

Puntland administration granted Somali Security Services Ltd. (SSS Ltd.), a company owned by Abdiweli Ali Taar-former taxi driver and sales clerk who comes from the same clan as Puntland President- a license to patrol territorial waters against illegal fishing vessels in March 2015.

UN report implicated Taar, also the former head of now defunct Somali-Canadian Coast Guard (SomCan) in 2000s in corrupt activities including the selling of licenses to private companies.

“SomCan’s practices led to conflicts with fishermen, contributing over time to the emergence of Somali Piracy.SomCan’s first Coast Guard stint come to an end when the company’s own marines hijacked a fishing vessel they had been tasked with guarding, the Sirichainava 12, and demanded a USD 800,000 ransom,” unveiled the report.

Monitors predict that SSS Ltd. may succumb to the temptation of selling illicit licenses to international clients, fuelling the cycle of corruption and conflict with local fishermen-something attributed to the explosion of Somali piracy in 2007.

On bureaucratic impediments, Puntland is at the forefront along with Somaliland in demanding registration fees payment from humanitarian organizations: “In Puntland the range of obstructive practices continued to be experienced, including layers of registration at district level”.

The UN report shed light on possible re-ignition of conflict by territorial dispute between arch rivals, Puntland and Interim Galmudug administration as well as oil deals with western commercial oil exploration companies in the absence of constitutional agreement on resource-sharing framework, in a country racked by bloody internal strife for over two decades.

Read the UN Report in full here

GAROWE ONLINE