Puntland Calls for Talks With the Somali Federal Government on Key Issues

The post-election summit in Garowe could repair relations between the Federal Government of Somalia and Puntland State of Somalia.

Garowe (PP News Desk) — The President of Puntland State Said Abdulahi Deni yesterday convened a meeting with the former Puntland President Senator Abdirahman Farole, the former Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Ahmed Issa Awad, former Foreign Minister, the Vice President of Puntland and Puntland Parliamentary Speaker.

In a statement shared with the media, the politicians urged people of Puntland to consolidate cohesion and security after the re-election of the incumbent president, and they called on the Federal Government of Somalia to put on hold the efforts to change the Somali political system through amendments to the draft federal constitution and to conduct extensive and transparent consultations on the constitutional amendments aimed to replace the prime ministerial system with a presidential system.

The communique on the summit in Somali

Critics have found fault with the published statement that had not contained a position on the violation of the territorial integrity of Somalia by Ethiopia whose Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, signed an illegal maritime Memorandum of Understanding with the President of the secessionist Somaliland Administration Muse Bihi Abdi on 7 January 2024.

Omar, Awad and Senator Farole have separately expressed support for the Federal Government to defend the territorial and political unity of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Sources told Puntland Post that advisers had urged President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to have a telephone summit with Puntland President over the illegal maritime MoU through which Ethiopia seeks to set up a naval base at Lughaya in Awdal in violation of the sovereignty of Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2024