Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni issued a stark warning Friday as federal troops intensified operations in the southern Gedo region, urging Mogadishu to withdraw its forces before the clashes between rival army units irrevocably fracture Somalia’s fragile unity. Deni condemned the deployment as “politically motivated violence” that is not only claiming civilian lives and uprooting families, but risking the very survival of the Somali state.
Addressing the international community, Deni cautioned that continued fighting in Gedo could erode donor confidence and jeopardize vital reconstruction aid. “When our leaders turn their guns on one another instead of Al-Shabab, Somalia’s credibility vanishes,” he said. He insisted that reason must prevail before these local skirmishes spiral into a nationwide collapse of governance.
The Puntland president’s intervention comes amid a simmering power struggle between President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s federal administration and Jubbaland authorities, led by Ahmed Madobe, over control of Gedo’s strategic border districts. Deni noted that Madobe’s close political alliance with Puntland makes the standoff especially combustible, yet he blamed Mogadishu for stoking tensions rather than seeking consensus under Somalia’s federal framework.
Deni appealed directly to President Mohamud to refocus national forces on the growing threat from Al-Shabab, which has seized new territory even as federal troops are tied down by internal disputes. “At a time when extremist violence is on the rise, our government chooses to wage conflict against its own people,” he said, warning that such misdirected priorities undermine Somalia’s security and weaken its standing on the global stage.
By challenging the federal government’s military posture in Gedo, Puntland’s leader has turned up the pressure on Mogadishu to negotiate a pullback and restore dialogue among Somalia’s member states. Failure to do so, he insisted, would not only deepen provincial divisions but imperil the hard-won gains of thirty years of state-building. Deni concluded with a plea for unity: “Somalia’s future depends on our ability to resolve disputes at the negotiating table, not the battlefield.”
