: Ex-Somaliland defense minister says he salvaged soldiers,

[Hiiraan boy]

HARGEISA, Somalia Apr 17 (Garowe Online) - The former defense minister of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland said on Tuesday that he expected to be praised and awarded for withdrawing troops from Dhahar district after violent clashes last week.

Adan Mire Wakaf, who was sacked on Sunday, argued that other Cabinet ministers in the delegation that visited the district accepted the decision to withdraw the troops.

Mr. Wakaf dismissed allegations cited against him by Dahir Riyale, the breakaway region’s president, including disobeying a presidential order telling then-Defense Minister Wakaf to keep the troops stationed in Dhahar.

“I thought I brought victory, I expected to be awarded a medal…but I didn’t think I warranted criticism and by retreating, I saved the soldiers and the technicals,” Wakaf told Jamhuuriya, a daily published in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa.

Somali military sources said the decision to retreat might've been influenced by the seasonal rains and concerns that the roads might soon be impassible for the military trucks.

Wakaf was revoked of his post on Sunday, a day after Puntland security forces retook Dhahar town after bloody gun battles with Somaliland soldiers. [ Full story]

Somaliland claims it has legal authority over Dhahar, a district in Sanaag, a region inside the borders of the ex-British Protectorate of Somaliland on which the breakaway region’s leaders base their case for independence.

Puntland’s vice president, Hassan Dahir Afqura, said in the capital Garowe that Somaliland aims to return to the past by claiming the regions of Sool and Sanaag.

The vice president chaired a ministerial meeting, which was primarily focused on the Somaliland border conflict.

VP Afqura, himself from Sool region, accused Somaliland of seeking to destabilize the peaceful Puntland regions as a means of weakening the Somali federal government, which is combating an insurgency in Mogadishu.

The two rival sub-states have fought over their unmarked several times since 2002

Garowe Online News