Four Puntland Parties Condemn Security MoU as Threat to Somali Unity

Garowe (PP News Desk) — Four political parties of Puntland State of Somalia have rejected the security Memorandum of Understanding signed in Nairobi last week by representatives from Puntland and the Somaliland Administration, describing it as a violation of the Puntland Constitution and against the territorial and political unity of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

IFIYE, MUSTAQBAL, MIDEEYE and SINCAD have issued a joint statement in Garowe after holding an “emergency meeting” to respond to the legal implications of the security MoU, in which Puntland signatories reportedly endorsed the secessionist claims of the Somaliland Administration. They criticised the administration of President Said Abdullahi Deni for promoting secessionist ideology in the name of Puntland State of Somalia.

“We see the support for self-determination for the Somaliland Administration as a violation of the law, and runs counter to the main purpose of founding Puntland State: to promote the unity of Somalia,” the statement reads.

Yesterday, the Puntland State Minister of Interior Abdi Farah Said ‘Juxaa’ refuted a claim made by Somaliland’s Defence Minister, Mohamed Yusuf, who told the BBC Somali Service that the two administrations would cooperate in hindering the North East State Administration, a Federal Member State based in Laascaanood, and that the Somaliland Administration rejects territories in the former British Somaliland now controlled by Puntland State of Somalia.