Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole," the president of Puntland, issued a decree appointing Col. Said Abdi Farah "Tuta-weyne" as the new commander of the Puntland army, known locally as Darawish.
Puntland Darawish commanders immediately welcomed Col. Tuta-weyne's appointment, saying that the Darawish force lacked effective leadership.
Col. Tuta-weyne, 57, is a battle-hardened army veteran. He was born in the coastal town of Eyl and joined the Somali National Army in 1974.
He fought in the 1977-1978 Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia, which erupted after Somali National Army units invaded the Somali-inhabited Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia.
In the early 1980s, he joined the SSDF (Somali Salvation Democratic Front), the first Somali rebel group to take up arms against Gen. Siad Barre's dictatorship and was a political prisoner for the military regime for two years as a consequence.
The SSDF was disbanded in 1998 when the federal State of Puntland was formed to administer Somalia's northeastern regions.
Col. Tuta-weyne earned military education at the Soviet Union's Odessa Military District, where he was specially trained in military air defense.
He spent much of the civil war years (post-1991) in the Diaspora and returned to Puntland last week to lead the federal state's army.
A step in the right direction indeed.
