Yusuf calls peace delegates “criminal”

People attending the Djibouti-hosted talks would be considered “criminal”, according to a new circular issued on Tuesday by Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, president of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia. Yusuf said any representative from the Puntland region “with responsibilities” at the conference would be treated as a criminal. Such people would be considered to have committed “a crime against the Puntland administration in general and the people of Puntland in particular”, local and international media reported.

The circular said the Puntland administration was not opposed to Somali reconciliation, but that the talks in Djibouti were “stage-managed”. It called on people in the region to ignore the outcome of the conference, which began in May. More than a thousand delegates have joined the process, as well as many more observers and participants. Yusuf has consistently opposed the Djibouti-hosted peace process, and his administration has arrested people supporting the process or planning to attend.