Puntland’s premiere research institute, the Puntland Development and Research Institute, better known by its PDRC initials, in its latest Policy Brief XI, New Security Dynamics and the Threats on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, is hot off the presses and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
While PDRC Policy Brief provides a decent introduction and background, and provides a reasonable explanation of the resurgence of piracy off the coast of Puntland, it miserably fails, both in reasoning and in reality, when it tries to paint Puntland clans who fought side-by-side with their SSC brethren in dislodging Somaliland militias from Sool as pirates, who “upon returning from Las’anod, have been drawn into piracy activities.”
It gets worse. PDRC blames Puntland State and hunger in Puntland for the uptick in piracy. PDRC writes, “given the absence of adequate government services” and lack of humanitarian aid has left Puntland “households without income sources, creating a cash scarcity in local markets and fostering frustration within the populace.”
If the people of Puntland forgot PDRC role in derailing Puntland democracy and forgave PDRC for their lack of support in standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their SSC brethren as they dislodged Somaliland militias from their land, PDRC neither forgot nor forgave both Puntland and SSC.
On Somaliland, PDRC is all praises on its Policy Brief XI, and it continued on where General Jimcaale left it off in July 2023, but even goes a step further by calling SSC-Khatumo an armed rebels who undertook “rebellion” against Somaliland’s eastern SSC Khatumo region. It keeps getting worse. PDRC writes that the “Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) could exploit these dynamics to its advantage, potentially exacerbating tensions within Somaliland.” This is more than surreal, as the FGS is the same FGS headed by President Hassan Sheikh, who stood side-by-side with Somaliland, as Somaliland daily and mercilessly shelled the city of Laascaanood. The same FGS that still refuses to grant Federal Member Statehood to SSC-Khatumo.
Who needs enemies when you have friends like PDRC. But let us digress, but hope SSC-Khatumo will issue the proper response PDRC deserves.
On geopolitics, which as a local NGO it had no business getting involved in, PDRC ventured out to the Red Sea and Yemen politics, but apparently doesn’t even know that “Houthi” is a derogatory name used by the West and the UAE for Yemen’s Ansar Allah Party, the only Arab nation that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance. Calling an Ansar Allah Yemeni a ‘Houthi’ in Somalia terms, it is akin to hate-filled Faisal Ali Waraabe calling Puntland “Majeerteenia,” but then again, some might even say that lately, “Faisal is closer to PDRC than PDRC is to Puntland.”
Daljir | Contributed to by Daljir staff in Garoowe and Nairobi
COMMENTS