Capital Flight and Donor Aid Cuts Raise Alarms in Puntland State of Somalia

[Deeq A.]

Garowe (PP News Desk) — In 2018, before winning the presidential elections of Puntland in 2019, President Said Abdullahi Deni delivered a speech launching his candidacy. “Public confidence in the administration is declining. People have lost hope in service delivery. There is no clear policy in place to support vulnerable segments of society. Capital flight is another major problem,” said Deni.

President Deni’s 2018 speech in which he criticised his predecessor President Abdiweli M. Ali.

Earlier this week, Puntland’s Deputy Minister of Information, Yacqub Mohamed Abdalla, stated: “Capital flight in Puntland is evident through the sale of properties, with the proceeds being reinvested abroad.” The Vice President of Puntland Ilyaas Lugator also expressed similar concerns. “There has been a sharp decline in donor aid. In Puntland, we must learn to rely on ourselves.” Daud Bisinle, the  Planning Minister of Puntland, urged businesses in Puntland to consider donating the charitable contributions known as Zakat to the government of Puntland State.

These bleak assessments of Puntland’s political and economic condition come in the wake of a recent speech by President Said Abdullahi Deni on the political situation in Somalia. “Puntland will organise a conference to save Somalia,” President Deni declared in Bosaso, where he is currently overseeing counter-terrorism operations against ISIS. His remarks coincided with a meeting of the National Consultative Council in Mogadishu.

Critics have accused President Deni of misusing limited government resources on political grandstanding. Recently, the Puntland Political Forum, an opposition group, urged President Deni to convene a conference to revisit the 1998 Charter upon which Puntland was founded.

“We congratulate Sool, Sanaag, Cayn and Khatumo administration for being granted federal member state status by the Federal Government of Somalia. Now is the time to hold a grand conference  for the next stage  of state-building in Puntland State of Somalia,” the Forum wrote in a press release.

Puntland was the first Somali federal member state to recognise the SSC-Khatumo (SSCK) administration, proclaimed in Laascaanood on 6 February 2023, the day secessionist forces of Somaliland administration attacked the administrative capital of Sool. SSCK leader Abdulkadir Aw Ali is participating in the National Consultative Council summit in Mogadishu, which Puntland has officially boycotted.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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