The federal government of Somalia is said to have engaged puntland traditional (titled clan) elders to provide guarantorship to Puntland president Said Abdullahi Deni if the it were to enter into any agreement with him.
Reliable sources confirmed that the federal government is planning to convene a meeting of Puntland traditional elders in Mogadishu. The objective of the planned meeting is for the federal government to ask the elders if they can undertake responsibility over Deni were the federal government to enter into agreements with him. The responsibility concerns that Deni should not betray the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia by entering into illegal and non-existent agreements with foreign actors and governments.
Conflict and disagreements between Garowe and Mogadishu has increased since Deni became president of Puntland in early 2019. This conflict is caused by political and foreign interests that Deni has been the proxy.
In order to find solutions and safeguard national interests, the federal government of Somalia is pursuing to have the elders take responsibility for Deni’s actions that he doesn’t continue in his cause of subversive actions against the state on which basis the FGS would like to enage and have agreements with him. This is stated in the four articles of Section 54 of the provisional constitution that call for protection against foreign interference and protecting territorial integrity of Somalia.
The federal government plan for Puntland transitional elders to provide guarantee for Deni may not work since Deni’s relationship with the traditional elders has not been good. The bad relationsship that Deni has with traditional system of elders is because people who belong to factional groupings like Islamists undermine traditional systems of authority upon which administrations like Puntland are based on. Therefore, there is no way to tell whether or not the traditional elsers will support or legitimate an authority which is known to undermine their own traditional authority and Somali xeer.
Muqdisho-Somalia
