Somalia’s Envoy to Turkey Quits to Run for Office in Oil-Rich Puntland

Timothy Rangongo
·1 min read
3

(Bloomberg) -- Somalia’s ambassador to Turkey quit to run for vice president of Puntland, the oil-rich, semi-autonomous territory in the eastern part of the country that holds elections on Monday.

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Jama Abdullahi Mohamed, who held the position in Ankara since 2017, issued a statement on his decision on X, formerly Twitter.

Puntland, an arid region in Somalia’s northeast, has oil and gas reserves that haven’t been fully commercially extracted due to ongoing instability. Apart from clashes between national government and Puntland officials over energy and electoral laws, the area has been long known as a haven for pirates and Islamic State militants.

Read more: Oil-Rich Somalia Region Elects Leader Amid Tensions

The elections in the territory of about 4.9 million people come a week after Somaliland, Puntland’s self-declared independent neighbor, concluded an agreement with Ethiopia to grant the landlocked country access to the Red Sea in exchange for a stake in Ethiopian Airlines.

Puntland’s next leader will be chosen by 66 lawmakers at a meeting in Garowe, the regional capital.

Somalia, the United Nations-recognized owner of the land, rejected the deal as illegal and recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia as tensions continue to rise on the northeast Indian Ocean coast.

Read more: African Union Joins US in Calling for Calm in Horn of Africa

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