Las Anod ( PP News Desk) — One year after the National Identification and Registration Authority of Somalia (NIRA) opened an office in Las Anod, the administrative capital of North Eastern State of Somalia, the number of new NIRA cards issued has increased by roughly 11%. The increase owes much to the requirement to hold an ID to board domestic flights, among other regulations.
The mandatory national ID for air travel throughout Somalia came into force one day after the reported attempted hijacking of a flydubai aircraft. The new regulations affected Somalis travelling from Garowe to Mogadishu the day after news of the failed hijacking broke.
Since then, the NIRA office in Las Anod has seen a rise in applications. Applicants are travelling from all Puntland-administered regions and from Somaliland-administered districts, whose administrations oppose NIRA for different reasons. NIRA headquarters in Mogadishu has authorised staff at the Las Anod office to issue cards to new applicants from these regions if they meet the criteria.
NIRA does not charge applicants a fee for an ID. Applicants have their fingerprints taken, along with high-resolution digital facial photographs for facial recognition and a digitised signature.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud recently said that NIRA cards “will be a prerequisite for many essential state and private-sector services”.
Although Puntland does not recognise NIRA cards and Somaliland claims to have seceded from Somalia in 1991, Somalis from these territories, whose administrations have fallen out politically with the Federal Government of Somalia, travel to the nearest NIRA office to obtain a nationally mandated ID card.
© Puntland Post, 2026