Profile of Puntland State of Somalia
By Ali Ismael Mohamed –Puntland
Introduction
Puntland State of Somalia was
established in 1998 by the efforts made by the traditional
leaders, intellectuals, and
elites. These social groups felt a great
responsibility beyond the
community they represented in order to get good governance.
The above delegation with many
other classes of the community from five the regions
formally known as North East
that is to say Bari, Mudug, Nugal, Sool, Sanag and Buhodle
District met in Garowe capital of Nugal region.
They talked face to face,
analyzed the situation of the country and at last decided to set
up an integrated administration
on basis of Regional Autonomy until a strong Somali
Government will be reestablished
to restore the solidarity and sovereignty of the country
and have its place in the
international community.
The goal was to unify the moral
and material contributions of the community members for
enhancing a democratic government capable of leading the people
in efforts to rebuild a new Somali government.
As a result, Puntland State
Government was established. According to the charter, it
consists of three councils:-
1. Legislative
council
2. Executive Council
3. Judiciary Council
The representatives or the
Puntland Parliament consists of 66 members who were
democratically elected by the
general assembly to form the legislative council including
the chairman and the deputy
chairmen.
Following then, the president
and the vice president were also elected by this way for
three years . The executive
council was formed and nine ministries were formed by the
president soon after presidential elections.
The supreme judicial council was
also establised by the president to ensure proper
compliance of the rules and
regulation in conformity with the interests and welfare of
society to realize social
harmony.
Geography
Puntland State was derived from
the word Punt and land which was known before
centuries by traders of
Frankincense and other foreign explorers who had commercial
relations with Puntland
particularly early Pharaohs of Egypt. Punt means Udug and
land means Dhul in Somali
Language.(The land of fragrance).
The state is located in the
eastern part of Somalia. It has borders with Somaliland in the
Northwest and
Gulf of Aden in the North,
Indian Ocean on the South east, on the South and Ethiopia on
the Southwest.
The Capital of the State is
Garowe, Nugal Region where the head quarters of the Public
Institutions are based.
Puntland consists of five
regions and one district, although recently was added to three
other regions which is not
officially amended by the parliament. These are as follows:-
1. Bari Region
2. Nugal Region
3. Mudug Region
4. Sool Region
5. Sanag Region
6. And Buhodle
District
*Parts of Sool and Sanag
regions are disputed with Somaliland also laying claim on them.
Area
The total area of Puntland is
around 212,510 km (approximately 1/3 one third of
Somalia).
Population
As to the population there is no
reliable demographic data for the state. However,
according to the national census
of 1975 plus an estimated 50 percent increase due to high
immigration rate during the to civil war Puntland population is
estimated about 2.4 million people.
Occupation
Regarding the occupation, 50
percent of the population are pastoralists while 10 percent are
in
fishery and less than five
percent cultivate the land for farming. Most of the remaining
population is involved in
small-scale business schemes such as hyper
marketing and mercantilism
(export /import) the mainly live stock export and import of
goods in place. Few light
industries and giant telecommunication companies employed
hundreds of workers also, but
most of the people are jobless.
Climate
Due to natural phenomena
Puntland climate is semi arid which is warm with average
daily temperature ranging from
27 to 37 degrees C and annual mean temperature of 17 degrees C.
The land and vegetation
The vegetation of the land
contains NacaNocilite trees and short thorny shrubs in
the Sool plains except the
mountainous vegetation which grows all over across the Golis
range, starts Form Ras Asayr and
stretches up to the Thespian high land.
In these areas, tall trees are
very crucial for producing wood for construction of houses and
boats are available particularly
in all meadow areas. The precipitation is variable and
spells rains and no place
receives two rainfall seasons yearly.
Seasons in the year of the
rainfall usually ranges from the spring which starts on 25april
and ends on the last days or
early part of June, and the autumn which begins on 1st
October and ends on November.
The autumn rainfall lasts almost 3months but
sometimes reach on (February
25th) most of the year.
The rest two seasons remain with
not much rainfall all the year except few precipitations
seen in parts of Sanag Region
and coral cities of Indian Ocean. This type of climatic
feature and vegetation influence
the mobile palters of pastorals and farmers least
productivity and absorption of
labour in agriculture of the region.