Analysis: days after the Bosaso fighting stops, City Situation returned to normal

December 26, 2021

FILE - Somali security forces patrol along the coast of Qaw, in Puntland, northeastern Somalia, Dec. 18, 2016. Two days of fighting ignited Dec. 14, 2021, between the Puntland Security Forces, an anti-terror unit, and the region's regular security forces.

By: Zakaria Ahmed, Horndiplomat correspondent

Bossaso, Somalia – After days of fighting and displacement, yesterday the situation of the city has returned to normal, but many people fled away from the city of Bossaso, the commercial capital of Puntland state of Somalia.
Puntland state President Said Abdullahi Deni received on Saturday former presidents Abdirahman Mohamed Faroole and Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, former two times Prime Minister of Somalia Omar Abdirashid, and traditional chief elders at the Puntland statehouse in Garowe.

The arrival of the delegation came after the last night, President Deni stated that he is ready for any solution through talk to end the hostilities in Bossaso that displaced many people.

The conflict between the Puntland state army and Puntland Security Force (PSF) is rooted in a dispute that erupted after the Puntland state of Somalia President Said Abdullahi Deni appointed Gen. Mohamed Amiin Abdullahi Haji Kheyr to be the new PSF director on November 24, to replace former PSF director Gen. Mohamud Osman Diyano.

Days of conflict at Wednesday Puntland state minister of security Abdisamad Mohamed Gallan has declared an immediate ceasefire, who was welcomed by various Puntland state former officials and traditional chief elders, but the fighting re-started late at night in the vicinity of PSF headquarters in the seaside city of Bossaso.

“We are at war and defending ourselves. We have fought for this country, and we do not want to use our weapons against our misguided forces,” PSF director Gen. Mohamud Osman Diyano told the BBC.

Counterterror force

In 2001, late Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a former Puntland President 2000-2004 and former Somalia TFG President arrived in the United States to sign MOU to establish a small base for the US military as Puntland Intelligence services PIS. For counter-terrorism operations.

PSF is a counter-terrorism force that’s trained by US forces in Africa aka US Africa Command, and it was formerly known as the PIS. It was formed in 2001 following September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and al-Qaeda attack on the USS Marine Corps by the US Navy in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen on October 12, 2000. In 2003 Mohamed Aden Bidar was appointed as the first director of PSF then in 2004 late Osman Abdullahi Diyano was appointed as a director who’s passed away due to illness in Nairobi and his son Gen. Asad Osman Diyano took the office until December 2018 when he resigned the military and joined the politics, and he appointed his brother Gen. Mohamud Osman Diyano as the new director of PSF army.

Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni, in a speech last night about the conflict, stated that he would give the traditional elders, scholars, and all those involved in the peace process a chance to end the conflict in Bossaso, but there is no one who sure that both sides would be satisfied outcome.

PSF said in their last statement “PSF will not take orders from those who worked with the enemy yesterday. Instead, we will continue to defend our people and our land”.