Semi-autonomous Somali Puntland Vows to Intensify War Against Piracy

The Somali semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland has announced it will strengthen its combat operations against the notorious pirates off the coast of Somalia. The Regional Security Minister General Yusuf Ahmed Kheyr said in a press conference in...

SOMALIA: Human Trafficking on the Increase

Officials in Somalia’s self-declared independent state of Somaliland are concerned over a rise in human trafficking in the region. Children are mainly trafficked from south-central Somalia, because of the lack of government there, says a senior...

Somali Puntland Court Sentences 22 Pirates to Six Years Imprisonment

A court in Bosasso, the commercial capital of the Somali semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland has sentenced 22 pirates to six years of imprisonment each, the judge announced. The buccaneers were captured by the French Navy a week ago while they...

Egypt Reiterates Its Support for Interim Somali Government

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has reiterated Egyptian support for the government of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in Somalia by all possible means.

Puntland Authorities Vow to Stop Human Trafficking Along Somali Coast

The authorities of the semi-autonomous Somali state of Puntland have vowed to end the activities of the notorious human traffickers based in the region. The governor of the coastal Bari region where the human traffickers load thousands of desperate African...

Gunmen Kill Prominent Islamic Cleric in Puntland

Unidentified gunmen have killed a prominent Islamic cleric in Bosaso, the provincial capital of Bari region of the semi-autonomous state of Puntland, eyewitnesses said Tuesday. Sheikh Sahal, the deceased man was the Imam of a mosque in Bosaso town, and...

Somali Government And Puntland to Cooperate on Security

The transitional federal government of Somalia (TFG) and the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland have discussed ways to cooperate on security and the recruitment of the government’s new police forces. During a lengthy meeting at the Puntland...

Puntland’s Information Ministry Orders VOA Journalists to Stop Working

Reports from the Somali regional state of Puntland indicate that reporters of the Voice of America Radio-Somali service (VOA) have been ordered to stop filing stories from the region. A communiqué issued by Puntland’s Information ministry on Thursday...

Somali Pirates Release Three Seychellois Hostages

Three Seychellois who were held hostage by Somali pirates following an attack on their sailing vessel, the Serenity in February, have been released by the pirates. Joel Morgan, Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources who headed the hostage negotiation...