Puntland leader Abdullahi Yusuf resigns

The Puntland president, Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, and his cabinet announced their resignations on Wednesday morning from Galkayo, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, security sources confirmed to IRIN. Just after midnight on Tuesday, Abdullahi Yusuf was escorted out of Garowe, the capital of Puntland, by 15 heavily armed battle-wagons, and arrived in Galkayo - his home town - early Wednesday morning, from where he made the announcement. The resignations follow months of political uncertainty in Puntland. Local sources told IRIN that “when the end came, it was peaceful”. Despite recent heavy fighting in the port of Bosaso, the commercial capital of Puntland, no fighting in the region as a whole was reported on Wednesday. There was, however, some looting at the former president’s residence in Garowe after it was vacated at midnight, local time, on Tuesday, but this was quickly contained, local sources told IRIN. “Some of the people he left behind took furniture and rugs immediately after he left the house,” local journalist Adan Abdirahman told IRIN. Elders quickly dispatched police to guard the property, he said. On Tuesday night, Abdullahi Yusuf was persuaded to leave Garowe “peacefully” by clan elders, Adan Abdirahman, editor of the Garowe-based ‘Nugal Times’, told IRIN on Wednesday. The former president had been forced to flee to Garowe from Bosaso, the commercial capital, on Monday. According to Adan, Abdullahi Yusuf was escorted out of Garowe by 15 heavily armed battle-wagons just after midnight and arrived in Galkayo at 0600 on Wednesday. He was reportedly persuaded to resign by a small group of elders from his own sub-clan, Muhammad Deq, the editor of the Bosaso-based ‘Sahan” newspaper, told IRIN. Security sources told IRIN that Abdullahi Yusuf had declared an intention to travel to Britain for medical treatment. He has suffered from a chronic liver complaint and has frequently sought medical attention abroad. Representatives of Abdullahi Yusuf based in Nairobi, and in contact with Garowe and Galkayo, told IRIN that while they had been unable to get official confirmation of the resignation, it was understood that “he had been advised to resign gracefully and think of his health.” No arrangements had been made concerning his next move, one representative said. Local sources in Garowe told IRIN that elders subsequently moved fast to shore up the authority of the new interim administration, led by the former chief justice, now acting president, Yusuf Haji Nur, to restore order. All government officers from the rank of director-general downwards in the existing administration were told they should remain in place and “continue with their usual activity”. Attempts by IRIN to contact Abdullahi Yusuf and his entourage in Galkayo were unsuccessful. Abdullahi Yusuf, elected by clan elders as president of Puntland in 1998, has been embroiled in a leadership dispute since the end of June. The mandate of his administration was to have expired on 30 June, but was extended for another three years - according to the administration. But the extension was challenged by opposition figures and aspiring presidential candidates, who called it an “illegal and unconstitutional” act made by handpicked faithfuls. The situation was compounded when the Puntland High Court issued a decree on 26 June putting all security services and other government institutions under the court’s supervision after 30 June. Chief Justice Yusuf Haji Nur declared himself the new leader, and told IRIN on 2 July that “as of 1 July, I am the legitimate authority in Puntland”. Yusuf said that the decree empowering him had been issued in conformity with the Puntland charter. Senior traditional elders met again on 17 July in Garowe, the seat of the presidency, to discuss the controversy surrounding the extension of the mandate. Local journalists told IRIN at the time that the elders were debating whether to support the extension or confirm the chief justice as acting president and call fresh elections. On 25 July the clan elders confirmed Yusuf Haji Nur as acting president until 31 August. However, Abdullahi Yusuf rejected the elders’ decision, and accused them of engaging in activities outside their mandate. By rejecting the elders’ decision, Abdullahi Yusuf underestimated the opposition to his administration, and the degree of popular discontent with his leadership, local sources told IRIN on Wednesday. Muhammad Deq said the deposed leader “had no idea what was happening around him, and the people around him were only giving him the good news”. Abdullahi Yusuf is a former army colonel, who participated in the 1977 Ogaden war between Somalia and Ethiopia. After the defeat of the Somali army, he, along with other senior Majerten officers, attempted a coup against former President Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1978. When the coup failed, he fled to Ethiopia, where, with the help of Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Hailemariam, he set up the first serious armed opposition group to Barre - the Somali Salvation Democratic Front. By all accounts, Abdullahi Yusuf enjoyed widespread support among the people of the northeastern regions of Somalia when he was first elected as president of Puntland in 1998, Somali political sources said. He also enjoyed the support of the current Ethiopian government, and was considered one of Somalia’s most influential warlords, said the source. Very recently, his officials had met representatives of the Mogadishu-based Transitional National Government for indirect talks and a potential position, raising cautious hopes that the northeastern leader might engage in a peace process he had previously categorically condemned.