From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Tue Apr 06 2010 - 20:36:19 EDT
SOMALIA: Ethiopia disapproves of Puntland government ministers
Posted By Qalinle Hussein On April 3, 2010 @ 8:40 pm In Africa | 26 Comments
ADDIS ABABA (Somalilandpress) — The president of Somalia’s
semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Farole has
recently held a meeting with Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister, Seyoum
Mesfin in Addis Ababa.
The meeting which took place in Sheraton hotel, focused on number of issues
including regional security as well as the Puntland cabinet ministers.
According to a sources close to Mr. Farole, the Ethiopian government
disapproved Mr. Farole’s presidential decree, dated March 12th, ordering
the dismissal of Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS) director, Mr. Osman
Diana (see SOMALIA: Puntland President Dashes to Ethiopia For an Emergency
Meeting [1]). The PIS is said to receive at least 50 per cent of
Puntland’s annual income as well as funds from Western and Ethiopian
intelligence services.
While the two were discussing the issue, the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs
Minister, Mr. Mesfin, has expressed concern about a number ministers and
provincial officials in the Puntland government accusing them of having
ties with extremists in southern Somalia.
Mr. Mesfin, accused Puntland’s national planning minister, Mr. Daud
Mohamed Omar and number of others including the governor of Bari region,
Sheikh Abdihafid Ali Yusuf, the Mayor of Garowe (capital of Puntland), Mr.
Abdiaziz Nur Elmi Koor, mayor of Bossaso town, Mr. Mohamud Farah Beldaje
and the mayor of Galkayo, Mr Abdirahman Mohamud Haji Hassan of having ties
with Somalia’s Islamists rebels fighting the TFG in southern Somalia.
Mr. Mesfin told the Puntlander leader that, Ethiopia has evidence that
Puntland’s planning minister’s car was one of the vehicles used in the
trio-suicide bombs that rocked Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, in October
2008. The bombs strucked the presidential palace, the Ethiopian Consulate
and a United Nations compound, killing 21 people and wounded 26 people.
Mr. Mesfin has also briefed the Puntland delegation that the newly
appointed governor of Bari region, Sheikh Abdihafid Ali Yusuf, was exposed
to Islamic radicalism while studying in Pakistan and that him and his
friends have close ties with Al Qaeda. He added that most of his former
friends were detained and sent to Guantanamo Bay.
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