The Puntland State of Somalia came into being in 1998. It’s an autonomous, self-governing part of Somalia (the most northeasterly corner of the erstwhile Somali Republic) that hasn’t declared full independence from Mogadishu and uses the same currency, internet domain and telephone code. Puntland’s capital is Garowe, a sprawling desert town of 60,000 people near the easternmost tip of Ethiopia. With fishing stocks depleted by foreign trawlers and the dumping of toxic waste, Indian Ocean piracy forms a major part of the economy, while the Puntland government has been trying to broker deals with foreign mining and oil companies.
We don’t cover any of the Somali territories in the book because we don’t feel they are secure enough to recommend, even with caution. Somaliland is the most accessible, and relatively the safest, of the Somali territories.
Links we like
Puntland Government Website For all your Puntland government info and opinions, a blog that looks remarkably like this one (First-Time Africa and Government of Puntland evidently both plumped for the same WordPress “theme of the month”).
All Puntland Busy, commercial news portal
If you know of any more good Puntland links, please shout.
This page last edited 9 June 2011 © Richard Trillo and Emma Gregg
First-Time Africa: know before you go 