Las Anod, 17 November, 2007 (SL Times) – Youth in Las Anod, the administrative capital of Sool region, have been handing in an assortment of deadly explosives to the town’s newly established authority.

A ministerial delegation from Hargeysa, headed by the minister of Public Works, Saeed Sulub Muhamad, have been in Las Anod for a month, to oversee and coordinate the restoration of the town’s local government authority, its basic infrastructures, and to re-establish the regional presence of the various government departments and services which used to operate in Sool prior to Puntland’s capture of the region in 2002.

On Monday, the ministerial delegation from Hargeysa met a group of the town’s youth who used to take part in anti-Somaliland activities such as demonstrations and instigating unrest and social disorder from the time Somaliland forces captured the town from Puntland, last month.

The meeting took part in Hamd Hotel in Las Anod. The Hargeysa delegation, along with the town’s newly established local authority officials and traditional elders received the youth who had brought with them an assortment of explosive devices to surrender to the delegation and local town officials. 25 different types of deadly explosives were handed to the delegation by the town’s youths. Among these were anti-tank mines, grenades and various bombs and rocket propelled bombs. The youths narrated how Puntland supplied them with this deadly arsenal for using it against the local pro-Somaliland officials and the town’s citizens who support Somaliland.

The ministerial delegation have been working with the town’s elders for some time, and have finally succeed in convincing them that the youth should be talked to and be made to understand that it is in their interest to surrender these deadly explosives before they harm themselves and others.

One of the elders who played a vital role in getting the town’s youth to come forward with these explosives was Mr Jama Ibrahim Warseme. Speaking to Haatuf Sool correspondent, A. A. Yusuf, Jama Ibrahim said, ”After many long hours of going back and forth trying to convince them of the dangers these items posed to them and others, the youths finally accepted our advice. In the end they accepted to hand in the bombs that Puntland gave them to use against Somaliland’s officials, forces and authorities.”

Mr Warsame went on to explain: “These items you see are of two explosive types of arms and in total number 25pcs. One type only needs the slightest detonation to go off, and the other type has a timing device which can be set of manually or by a propellant device. All these items were smuggled from Garowe, capital of Puntland, and were distributed to the town’s youth by a number of locals working for the Garowe administration. The government has arrested these people and are all waiting to be put on trial.”

Regarding this matter, the Minister of Public Works, Saeed Sulub said, “we have been aware of the people carrying out this operation for some time and the number of explosives that Puntland had sent to Las Anod. It was a matter of swooping down on these people and arresting them or talking to the town’s youth which Puntland planned to use to carryout its operations against us. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that if we convinced the kids that their lives and many more were seriously in danger, they might just listen to our pleas. We have already seen causalities from these devices. Last week, when one youth threw a grenade into a group of people congregating in down town, one person sustained serious injuries from the explosion. We, therefore, concluded that it was more important to save the lives of the kids than arresting Puntland’s stooges. We have succeeded in getting most of the devices which have been smuggled into town from Puntland; only a small number of the people behind these operations have escaped our nets, but, we are onto them and we will catch them.”

Source: Somaliland Times