SOMALIA: Somaliland and Puntland to cooperate on security

Common enemy: Both Puntland and Somaliland fear the spread of Islamist insurgency such as Al Shabab. Photo: Hassan Mahamud Ahmed/IRIN

HARGEISA, 28 September 2010 (IRIN) - Somaliland and Puntland, once-warring territories in northern Somalia, have unprecedentedly agreed in principle to work together to tackle common security threats.

Troops from both entities have clashed over disputed borderlands in the past. They also differ over the issue of sovereignty: Somaliland unilaterally declared independence in 1991, and Puntland, while asserting a degree of autonomy, recognizes Mogadishu as its own, and Somaliland’s, capital.

"You can't choose your neighbours, whether it is a region or state; for this reason, from now on, we are going to work with the Puntland state of Somalia, in terms of security of the [Horn of Africa] region,” Somaliland’s Interior Minister, Mohamed Abdi Gabose, said on 26 September in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa. Read More