Puntland’s scapegoating games , blackmailing the international community

The pirates and smugglers’ enclave Puntland an autonomous region in Northeastern Somalia has been known to host pirate and smuggling groups. It’s not a secret, smugglers operate openly in Bossasso, Eil, Bareda, Xafun, Qandala, Calula and many other coastal towns of Bari and Nugal regions of Puntland. The authorities in Puntland are fully aware the activities of the pirates and smugglers. The international community has time and again been skeptical about the role and the involvement of the police and coastal security forces in the hijackings. Adding to the fuel, many question this week’s police raid in the towns of Elayo and Qaw, an abandoned coastal towns with populations less than one thousand. Why not Eil (the pirate kingdom,) or Bareda just 20 km to east of Bossasso? Or even Bossasso smugglers’ market?

Puntland authorities claimed the capture of 9 pirates and 3 smugglers. According to the chief of Punland’s police forces, Osman Hassan Awke,”the arrest was made in the towns of Elayo and Qaw.” Notwithstanding the chief called the operation a success, the BBC interviewer, Ahmed Kismayo, challenged him, ” why not other areas?” The chief stumbled on this question and simply responded, “that is the kind of capability we have for now.” In addition, the chief said, “150 people ready to board on one of the boats were left behind to fend for themselves or else go back where they came from.”

More than 200 vessels have been hijacked from the waters of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean surrounding Puntland, and even the international waters as far as places closer to Yemen and Oman. Smugglers load their ill-equipped boats from ports not far from the commercial hab city of Puntland, Bossasso, the largest metropolitan coastal city in Puntland. This week alone the pirates hijacked three ships from the international waters.

Piracy is a lucrative business in Puntland and already mansions and expensive Landcruisers bought with the ransoms are part of the economic boom! even in the major cities of Puntland. Pirates and smugglers make their fortune; wed beautiful wives; and mostly settle in major urban cities such as Garowe, Galkayo, Qardho, and Bossasso. In fact, government officials admit that there are some good pirates and smugglers neighboring them as ordinary citizens.
tf.sf investigative reporters