Puntland at Twenty-Eight: A Dream Achieved, A Promise Yet to Be Realised.

I was a young boy who had just finished grade one and was about to proceed to grade two of his primary education when I first saw delegates gathering in my small hometown, Garowe. I did not know it then, but I was watching the first steps of a new state being born. Two memories from that time have stayed with me ever since.

The first is of my father. He was one of the delegates. Every morning he left home before the town was fully awake, and he returned only in the evening, tired but proud. As a child, I did not understand what he and the others were building. I only knew something important was happening, because the adults spoke about it in serious voices.

The second memory is of Barxada Square. When school finished for the day, we would walk past the restaurants near the square, always full. Garowe, a quiet little town, had suddenly become a place where people were shaping history over cups of tea.

Later, I remember the election of Abdullahi Yusuf. My grandmother and other relatives sat together, talking anxiously about trouble in Laacdheere. I did not understand it at the time, but I later learned that a group of militias, refusing to accept the election results, had set up a checkpoint there. This led to the first security operation carried out by the newly formed state of Puntland. The operation succeeded: the militias were captured and taken to RF, the prison in Bosaso.

I now understand that those two childhood memories, my father’s quiet service and my family’s anxious talk about a checkpoint, shaped how I would come to understand what it takes to build a state. I grew up, went to school, worked, married, and raised my own children, all under the administration born from that gathering in Garowe. I was fortunate. Many of my generation, across Somalia, never found the peace and structure that allowed me to build a life. That is something I do not take for granted.

Why Puntland Came Into Being

As Chairman of the Grand Conference, Islan Mohamed Islan Muse articulated the founders’ purpose with clarity. Two central goals guided the effort:

1. To establish a self-governing system capable of delivering stability and essential services to the people.

2. To contribute to a federal, parliamentary Somalia, in which every region, not only the center, could benefit from functioning institutions and public services.

Nearly three decades later, it is worth asking honestly how much of that founding vision has been realized, and how much still awaits fulfillment.

A Legacy Worth Taking Pride In

Assessed honestly, Puntland stands as a genuine success story within the region. It is not without flaws. But it is a record worth telling with pride.

Security, while imperfect, has largely held. Roads, buildings, and basic infrastructure have expanded, even as needs continue to outpace supply. Towns have grown rapidly. Education has advanced in ways once unimaginable: more than a dozen universities now operate in a territory that had none before Puntland’s founding. Nearly every village has gained access to water. Small health posts and maternal health centers now span the region. Primary schools number in the hundreds today, compared with roughly a dozen that survived the years of military rule preceding Puntland’s formation.

This is the success story, and it deserves to be told.

The Founding Promises Yet to Be Fulfilled

Honesty, however, also demands an account of the commitments that remain unmet.

1. Power has not fully returned to the people. Puntland’s founding charter promised that within three years, authority would return to the people, who would elect their own leaders, from the state president down to local councilors. That promise remains only the true priority. Leadership has too often relied on the authority of a strong individual rather than on the construction of durable, lasting institutions.

3. Security remains fragmented rather than unified under the state. A modern, integrated security system for all of Puntland has yet to be fully established. Substantial quantities of weapons remain in the hands of clans rather than the government. Beyond the police and the Puntland Maritime Police Force, few forces carry a genuine, unified Puntland identity. Much of the security landscape continues to be shaped by clans and influential individuals rather than by state authority.

4. The economy’s core strengths remain underdeveloped. Livestock and fisheries form the backbone of Puntland’s economy, yet they have not received the investment they warrant. Coastal towns still lack the basic infrastructure required to convert these natural resources into sustainable income for their communities.

5. The health system has been left behind. Government investment in healthcare has remained weak across successive administrations. Private hospitals have attempted to fill the gap, establishing several solid, mid-sized facilities, but even these institutions struggle without meaningful support from the broader system.

Conclusion:

Protecting Unity, Completing the Vision

Puntland is a source of legitimate pride, and it must be protected from those who wish to see it fail. The unity of its people has always been its true foundation, the reason it has endured and grown for nearly three decades, and that unity must be safeguarded above all else.

But pride in what has been achieved should not diminish the demand for more. Puntland’s next chapter requires a modern, unified security system, a stronger health system, and genuine investment in fisheries and the coastal communities that have waited far too long for their share of the state’s promise.

The delegates my father walked among, all those years ago in Garowe, built something real. It now falls to this generation to ensure that their work is not only carried forward, but finally completed.

Idiris Mohamoud Hamud
Executive Director and Co-Founder, UDUB Insights Institute
Public Policy and Governance Expert