Somalia’s Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni warned that foreign countries are using different techniques to exploit the region’s marine resources, APA can report on Saturday.
Speaking in the coastal town of Garacad, Deni accused foreign countries of using the resurgence of piracy off Somalia’s coast as one of the pretexts to deploy forces to Puntland’s waters and exploit the region’s resources.
Hence, he said, Puntland would not accept counter-piracy operations being used to justify the deployment of foreign forces along its coastline.
“The intention is to extract our resources through deploying forces to our coast under the guise that Puntland has failed to defend itself from piracy,” Deni said.
The Puntland president said the public could not accept civilians being killed during counter-piracy operations. He insisted that Puntland has the capacity to combat piracy without foreign military intervention.
Deni also referred to previous foreign naval operations off Somalia’s coast, alleging that the country’s marine resources were depleted while international forces were operating along its waters.
He called on the people of Puntland and the international community to support efforts to curb piracy to protect the extraction of Puntland’s natural resources.
Puntland has previously accused Somalia’s federal government of contributing to the conditions behind the resurgence of piracy. Somali pirate groups have intensified attacks and vessel hijackings in recent months along the country’s coastline.
Reports on the piracy situation indicate that more than 90 crew members have been taken hostage this year, highlighting the sharp increase in piracy activity off Somalia’s coast.
At least four vessels have been hijacked by the pirates off the coast of Somalia since some months now through using Honour 25, Sward as a mother vessel to which hijack other vessels including Eureka Asana, Lutuf and Seamull.
MG/as/APA