Puntland and North East State’s Coexistence Challenge

[Deeq A.]

President Deni rejected several overtures from SSCK before the formation of the North East State

President of Puntland Said Abdullahi Deni.

Garowe (PP Editorial) — In July 2025, a few days before the 27th anniversary of Puntland State of Somalia, a new federal member state, North East State, came into existence. The Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs Minister, Ali Hosh, and a committee set up to facilitate discussions on forming the new administration oversaw the federal state formation process. It reflects the extent to which the federal system of Somalia has managed to guide federating regions by forming federal member states in line with the provisional constitution.

Historically, Puntland is the only mono-clan, pre-federal federal member state. Its status enabled it to propose the federal system on account of its post-1991 governance track record before Puntland was formed in August 1998. Puntland advocated the end of the transitional period (2004–2012) and the institutionalisation of the federal system. The provisional constitution, whose drafting Puntland influenced during the transitional period, stipulated that two or more regions can form a federal member state. This specification put forward by Puntland is based on the fact that it controls two full regions (Nugaal and Bari). It disadvantaged Puntland in the sense that its vast territories (six regions, four of them shared with other non-Puntland clans) have underperformed in the decentralisation drive Puntland was expected to lead as an ardent advocate of the federal system in Somalia.

That Puntland has broken up into two federal member states is not a surprise. Puntland’s political system has concentrated power in the presidency. Added to this, both the Farole administration (2009–2014) and the Deni administration (2019–2024, and 2024 –) assumed that the Puntland constitution, which makes no reference to the sovereignty of Somalia, entitles Puntland State to act as an independent state until the referendum on the provisional national constitution is conducted. This interpretation tends to isolate Puntland from state-building initiatives in Somalia and push Puntland towards a break-up. Puntland State has not so far reformed its security apparatus: there are parallel forces: federal member state and paramilitary clan forces.

In 2002, Puntland established an intelligence service to align itself with the “War on Terror” agenda. This was a violation of the Puntland constitution, creating an illegal organisation that is not accountable to the Puntland State government. No Puntland president has succeeded in dismantling the intelligence service. The Deni government clashed with the intelligence service but backed down after realising that parallel security organisations are a deplorable feature of Puntland’s political system. That Daesh set up based parts of Puntland before the ongoing counterterrorism operations shows how terror groups exploit parallel security apparatuses.

Puntland was largely spared the conflicts that engulfed Mogadishu and Hargeisa during the 1990s, partly because clans in the pre-Puntland territories  then known as the North East regions were not as well armed as militias in Hargeisa and Mogadishu. Twenty years of rotating power in Puntland between clans predisposed each incumbent president to arm his sub-clan. In Puntland, some sub-clans are far less armed than others. In places such as North Galkacyo, where a community conference was recently concluded, participants called for the implementation of religiously sanctioned capital punishment (qisas) among clans to combat intra-clan feuding. Puntland State’s government did a good job rooting out Al-Shabaab cells in North Galkacyo only to see them replaced by well-armed, feuding sub-clans that forced many residents to flee Puntland’s once-thriving business city.

President of North East State Abdulkadir Aw Ali.

Puntland State initially recognised the Sool, Sanaag, Cayn and Khatumo (SSCK) administration before the Laascaanood-based administration  gained federal member state status several months ago. Then Puntland claimed that it did not recognise the SSCK administration during the conference to form North East State. Puntland is a federal member state formed by Southern Harti, Leelkase, Awrtable and Northern Harti. Puntland’s founders did not foresee a situation whereby the federal government would have the primacy to facilitate  the formation of federal member states, as it did when Jubaland, South West State, and Hirshabelle were being formed, or when Galmudug was being expanded to include Galguduud, which was once controlled by Ximan & Xeeb and Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a paramilitaries.

The incumbent Puntland administration cut ties with the Federal Government of Somalia in 2023, denying Somali citizens in Puntland a substantial amount of development aid and other financial support. When the SSCK administration, then a part of Puntland before being recognised as a federal member state, deferred to federal authorities and in Laascaanood pledged support for the Prime Minister of Somalia, Hamza Abdi Barre, in the presence of the King of the Darod clan, Burhan, Puntland State’s government felt betrayed. SSCK rectified an epic political mistake made by President Said Abdullahi Deni in 2023 when, in a fit of anger, he described Hamza as a “secretary.” Since then, relations between SSCK and Puntland have soured. Puntland State’s government claimed that SSCK accepted federal member state status without a consultative conference with Puntland, despite Puntland formally recognising the 6 February 2023 declaration in which SSCK was founded in Laascaanood.

Earlier this year, President Deni supported the secession claim of Somaliland, a strategy he thought would entice the secessionist administration into a new round of conflict, which he sees as an opportunity to rekindle a pan-Harti alliance similar to the 2023 mobilisation of Harti clansmen against the aggression of Somaliland’s administration against Harti. Puntland was not party to the Laascaanood conflict, but Harti clans fought alongside SSCK forces to defend their Somali citizenship since secessionists consider Southern Harti clans as foreigners in Laascaanood and other parts of North Harti territories in Sanaag, Sool, and Togdheer.

The former Puntland State president Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, who was also a former prime minister of Somalia, and Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a former prime minister, welcomed the formation of the North East State. Puntland has neither set an example in decentralisation nor has its political class succeeded in addressing political and economic stagnation in Somalia’s first autonomous, pro-union administration. President Deni rejected several overtures from SSCK before the formation of the North East State. He surmised that no new federal member state would come into existence. When SSCK gained federal member state status, he did not welcome it. It is unclear if that was a strategic mistake based on a failed wait-and-see policy or Deni’s version of a “Puntland Perestroika”, an attempt to rejuvenate the politically inefficient Puntland State of Somalia by facilitating its break-up into two federal member states.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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