Canadian Oil Exploration Company Attacked by Disgruntled Militia In Puntland.

(Garowe)

25 May 2008
Posted to the web 26 May 2008


Exploration equipment reportedly contracted by a Canada-based oil company undocked at the port of Bossaso Sunday, but emerging reports tell Garowe Online that disgruntled militia have already launched their first strike.

The equipment included construction trucks of the old variety, along with trucks transporting water and petroleum to a location east of Bossaso where Africa Oil Corp. has set up an operations camp in the self-governing Puntland province of northeastern Somalia.


A Bossaso port source privately told Garowe Online that some of the trucks were "old and looked to be in bad condition," but that the contractor had "repainted" the trucks to give them a newer look.

Photographs of the equipment were splashed across Puntland government-affiliated Web sites, showing older trucks being unloaded as heavily-armed soldiers kept watch.

Hassan "Allore" Osman, Puntland's oil minister, told the media that Africa Oil will begin exploration activities in the region soon - marking the first such endeavor to be undertaken in the lawless Horn of Africa country since the late 1980s when American and European companies collected exploration data.

The bold exploration effort - engineered under the leadership of Puntland President Adde Muse - has faced numerous political and security obstacles since its inception in mid-2005.

Violence

On Sunday night, three of the trucks that were unloaded from a container ship docked at the port of Bossaso underwent mechanical problems and became stuck inside Bossaso, witnesses reported.

The trucks reportedly stopped working somewhere between Hotel Panorama and the Golis telecommunications company headquarters.

At around 11:30pm local time, unidentified militiamen attacked the location where there were reports of an exchange of gunfire.

Emerging reports have indicated that the attackers successfully hit one of the trucks with a rocket launcher, setting the truck on fire.

Reports of any casualties were difficult to obtain, since it was late during the night and there is limited movement of citizenry.

It was also immediately unclear who the attacking militiamen were, but the strike comes on the heels of widespread reports that unhappy clans have organized militias to counter the Puntland-Africa Oil drive to dig for Somalia's unproven oil reserves.

In unrelated development, an armored vehicle traveling between Bossaso and the Africa Oil operations camp 90km east exploded yesterday, wounding five militiamen on board.

Medical sources confirmed that the wounded militiamen were transported to Bossaso under a shroud of secrecy and are being treated for their injuries.

The cause of the explosion could not be independently ascertained, but some reports indicated that the vehicle hit a landmine secretly planted along the vital road.

Other reports said one of the militiamen accidentally dropped a grenade inside the vehicle.

As reported by Garowe Online last week, Africa Oil and its partners in the government of Puntland have established a private militia force to safeguard the Canadian company's operations in Somalia. [ READ: Oil firms recruit private militia for Puntland exploration]

The wounded men are part of that private militia, which remains untrained and ill-prepared to deal with the daunting security challenges ahead.

Challenges ahead

Exploration in Puntland is a nationally-sensitive topic across Somalia, as discord lingers within government halls in Mogadishu and Garowe, the capital of Puntland.

Most recently, Somali lawmaker Asha Abdalla openly criticized interim President Abdullahi Yusuf for endorsing the Puntland-Africa Oil deal.


MP Abdalla hails from Sanaag, a northern region etched between Puntland and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.

In early 2006, Sanaag was the scene of fierce fighting between clan militia opposed to exploration and Puntland security forces. The violence forced Africa Oil's joint venture partner, Australian mining firm Range Resources, to suspend operations in Puntland.

But even with President Yusuf's endorsement, serious challenges lay ahead for any meaningful exploration effort in Puntland.