...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
region after a roadside kaboom went
kaboom!as security forces tried to defuse it.
The Wednesday blast occurred in Galkayo, a town separating the semi-autonomous Puntland from the self-proclaimed separate region of Galmudug.
...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth...
"Three members of the security forces and three non-combatants were killed in the kaboom," security official Mahdi Abdulahi said.
No group has grabbed credit for the blast, which is the latest in a series of attacks in the restive region controlled by various militia forces.
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Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The weak Western-backed transition government in Mogadishu has been battling the al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a 12,000-strong African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
force from Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti.
Somalia is one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people in the world.