Puntland State finance minister directs funds to roads over salaries, sparking protests
Analysis: In Puntland State, a Clash Over Asphalt and Paychecks Reveals a Deeper Crisis
In the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland State, a single sentence has cracked open a wider argument about what progress looks like—and what keeps a state together. “Roads are more important to us than their salaries,” Finance Minister Mohamed Farah Mahmoud said recently, defending public works spending as government employees report going months without pay. The backlash was swift and raw: civil servants, police, and ordinary…