Security forces in Somalia’s autonomous northeastern Puntland region have made significant progress in ridding the area of the Islamic State group in Somalia (ISSOM).
Since November, the Puntland Defense Forces (PDF) has waged war on the group in a campaign known as Operation Hilaac. Clan militias; the Puntland Darawish, a regional paramilitary unit; and the Puntland Maritime Police Force participated in the operation, which recently has reclaimed swaths of mountainous territory from ISSOM.
In late April, Darawish forces killed more than 40 ISSOM fighters during operations in the Togga Miiraale area of the Cal Miskaad mountain range.
“Our forces dealt a decisive blow to the terrorists, clearing key command sites and reclaiming strategic ground,” Gen. Mohamed Mohamud Faadhigo, who leads Puntland’s operations against ISSOM, told Kenyan news outlet The Eastleigh Voice. “Togga Miiraale had long served as one of their last major refuges.”
The Puntland government reported that Operation Hilaac has advanced 315 kilometers, clearing numerous villages and about 50 outposts in the mountains. Officials say PDF forces have killed more than 150 fighters.
PDF’s success “shows how local and substate forces can be more effective at fighting armed nonstate groups than the federal authorities, despite limited resources,” Levy wrote.
According to the Polish Institute of International Affairs, the PDF is composed of about 10,000 troops. Its latest gains occurred as ISSOM significantly increased its own capacity by attracting volunteers from African countries such as Algeria, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia and the Middle East, bringing its numbers to an estimated 600 to 1,000 fighters.
Some ISSOM fighters, such as Moroccan information technology experts, are recruited. Others say they were kidnapped after being offered jobs.
“We had to unload food from camels and carry it into the mountains,” a Moroccan man who escaped ISSOM told The Washington Post. “I was afraid because there were four guards with night-vision goggles.”
In its offensives, ISSOM has attacked Puntland forces with machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, suicide bombers and high-end drones, including some equipped with thermal imaging cameras that enable nighttime attacks.
Mohamed Mubarak, head of Puntland’s security coordination, told the newspaper the terror group plants bombs on dead fighters or uses its own wounded to set up ambushes. Mubarak said the region’s overstretched explosives teams rarely have time to defuse and examine suicide vests or bombmaking labs. The unit has lost 27 members over the past five years.
Gen. Abdirahman Mohamed Jama, head of the Puntland Maritime Police Forces, said the unit needs drone jammers, bomb detectors and night-vision equipment. “Yesterday, we had 10 [improvised explosive devices] on our route,” Jama told The Washington Post in February
Amid its gains against ISSOM, Puntland authorities in late April pledged to assist in the fight against al-Shabaab in Somalia’s southern Middle Shabelle region, where the terror group has made gains against the Somali National Army. Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni said the region’s forces will complement federal forces in Middle Shabelle once Operation Hilaac concludes.
“Puntland is part of Somalia,” Deni said in a report by Somalia’s Garowe Online news website. “We are obliged to contribute to the defense and stabilization of the nation.”