Somali federal government funds Puntland State troops as rift with regional leaders widens

Somalia’s Federal Government Pays Troops in Puntland State, Deepening a High-Stakes Rift

Mogadishu — Somalia’s federal government has moved to directly pay more than 2,500 soldiers stationed across Puntland State in a blunt show of authority that underlines a widening power struggle with the semi-autonomous region, officials and financial records indicate.

Over the past 48 hours, soldiers in Garowe, Bosaso and Galkayo received $200 each via electronic transfers, according to local officials and transaction details reviewed by Hiiraan Online. Many recipients were identified in remittance messages as members of the Somali National Army (SNA). The bulk of the payments, officials said, went to the Puntland State Security Force (PSF) in Bosaso and to a Danab commando contingent based around Garowe — both units that have seen rising tensions with Puntland State’s administration in recent months.

Why this matters now

The payments arrive amid a raw political standoff. Puntland State, led by President Said Abdullahi Deni, has been at odds with Mogadishu over the shape of Somalia’s federal arrangement, constitutional changes, and the command of security forces in the north. Puntland State authorities have reportedly halted salaries to some units in recent months, igniting frustration within ranks that already weather erratic pay and dangerous deployments. By stepping in, the federal government is signaling it is willing to bypass Garowe and bankroll troops directly.

It is a risky gambit in a country where loyalty can follow the payroll—and where multiple chains of command have long complicated efforts to build a coherent national force.

Who is being paid

Officials familiar with the transfers said most of the funds went to:

• PSF members in Bosaso, a force long regarded as one of Puntland State’s most capable units.
• Elements of the Danab commandos near Garowe, an elite formation aligned with the federal military.
• SNA-affiliated soldiers around Galkayo, a city often on the seam of contested authority.

At $200 per soldier, the sums point to a total outlay in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars — a modest figure on paper, but one with outsized political consequences when directed at forces whose pay has been disrupted.

Fault lines in the north

In parallel, Puntland State authorities have halted salary and food provisions for troops in the Sool and Cayn regions, after local leaders aligned with a newly declared Northeastern Federal Member State. Officers in those areas, according to sources in Garowe, have defied Puntland State’s chain of command, pledging loyalty to the emerging administration — an act that arguably challenges Puntland State’s territorial claims and exposes the fragile security architecture in northern Somalia.

It is one more strand in a tangle of overlapping disputes that have simmered for years: contested allegiances in the borderlands, friction with local administrations, and a federal system still being defined in real time. The entire picture is complicated by the legacy of the conflict around Laascaanood and the evolving status of local authorities across Sool, Sanaag and Cayn.

Mogadishu’s message

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has recently acknowledged the presence of national army personnel operating in Puntland State, a nod to the uncomfortable reality that multiple uniforms serve under overlapping banners in the region. The direct payments appear to back that acknowledgement with cash — a tangible reminder that the federal center can still reach the peripheries, even without punctual cooperation from regional capitals.

In Somalia, money moves faster than memos. Mobile money and hawala networks have long been the bloodstream of the economy; now they are the conduit of a political statement. “When salaries stop, discipline frays,” a security analyst in Nairobi said by phone. “When salaries resume from another source, loyalties can shift just as quickly.”

What we’re watching

• Chain of command: Will PSF and Danab elements in Puntland State answer to Mogadishu, Garowe, or attempt to straddle both? Mixed allegiances within armed units are a potential spark for dangerous misunderstandings at checkpoints and on operations.
• Public sentiment: Puntland State’s institutions retain substantial legitimacy among their population. Direct federal payments could be interpreted as a lifeline to soldiers — or as an encroachment on regional autonomy.
• Security operations: Danab and PSF units have been central to counterterrorism and anti–al-Shabaab missions along the coast and in the interior. Disruptions to supply chains and morale can quickly translate into tactical vulnerabilities.
• Donor engagement: International partners, who have poured resources into reforming Somalia’s security forces, are sensitive to anything that dilutes unified control, oversight and accountability.

Global echoes

Somalia is not alone in this dilemma. Across the Sahel and the Middle East, central governments have used payrolls to reassert control over quasi-autonomous forces — sometimes stabilizing the ranks, sometimes accelerating fragmentation. The tactic carries a question that resonates far beyond Somalia’s shores: can a state rebuild cohesion by paying its soldiers directly when political agreements remain unsettled?

There are no easy answers. Somalia’s security sector has improved in recent years, even as the African Union has drawn down peacekeeping forces and the government wages an uneven, often locally led offensive against al-Shabaab. But the story of institutional progress still competes with the stubborn realities of clan politics, contested borders and resource constraints. In that kind of landscape, a $200 payment is more than a wage; it is a signal flare.

On the ground

In Garowe, soldiers queued at kiosks and handset shops to confirm transfers on their phones, an everyday ritual in a country where digital wallets have outpaced bank branches. In Bosaso’s port district, shopkeepers said the payments were immediately felt: a spike in purchases of staples, phone data, and the odd new pair of boots.

“When cash flows, people breathe,” a trader said, waving at a stack of rice sacks. “But which government is paying? That is the question everyone asks.”

The bottom line

The federal government’s direct payments to troops in Puntland State are a clear test of wills with the region’s leadership. They promise short-term relief for unpaid soldiers — and introduce fresh uncertainty about who commands whom. The transaction may be electronic, but the stakes are painfully concrete: cohesion on the front lines, the integrity of Somalia’s federal experiment, and the safety of civilians caught in the middle.

What comes next depends on whether Mogadishu and Garowe can turn this payday into dialogue rather than provocation. Somalia’s security gains have been hard-won. They will be hard to protect if payrolls become the new battleground.

By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.