Criminalisation of Clan-based Identities Fuels Intra-Clan Feuding in Somalia

[Deeq A.]

Intra-clan feuding in Somalia results from the criminalisation of (sub) clan identities.

Garowe (PP Editorial) — Inter-clan feuding is one of the characteristics that anthropologists seized upon when writing about pre-independence Somalia. Known as aano qabiil (revenge killing), its more dangerous variant, intra-clan feuding, is far more difficult to contain in parts of Somalia where hybrid justice systems allow the coexistence of customary law and the Somali Penal Code.

Last week, Ali Haji Warsame, the former Education Minister of Puntland State of Somalia, and now the Director of Hiil Institute, a think tank, fervently spoke out against intra-clan feuding in North Mudug. “A sub-clan in the Mudug decided not to accept blood money if any of its members falls victim to murder based on sub-clan identity. Now people are wary of killing anyone from that sub-clan because potential murderers know the sub-clan will not accept blood money to settle the case,” Warsame said. He added that many people have emigrated from Mudug due to intra-clan feuding.

Ali Haji Warsame: “A sub-clan in the Mudug decided not to accept blood money if any of its members falls victim to murder based on sub-clan identity.”

The Puntland State government seems indifferent to the crisis of intra-clan feuding that fuels insecurity in parts of North Mudug. What is more, armed sub-clan militias resort to vandalism. They destroy cables belonging to Golis Telecom. The Puntland State Interior Ministry has not issued any statement on vandalism, which damages the property of a leading Puntland telecommunications company that employs many people and delivers key telecommunications and financial services.

When will Puntland State President Said Abdullahi Deni address the intra-clan feuding that is forcing many people to emigrate from the Puntland State of Somalia?

Intra-clan feuding in Puntland can no longer be swept under the rug. The fear of clan-mediated vendetta and organised vandalism is causing emigration from Puntland to other parts of Somalia or abroad. Intra-clan feuding in Puntland poses a dire security threat, not less dire than that posed by transnational terrorists such as Daesh and Al-Shabaab.

If a sub-clan hands over the suspect accused of murder, the victim’s sub-clan is less likely to resort to revenge killing that costs the life of a citizen whose (sub)clan identity has been criminalised. The customary law was devised to serve people in the countryside whose lives have not been touched by modernity. Its coexistence with the Somali Penal Code must come to an end in order to break the cycle of intra-clan feuding in Puntland State of Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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