Many Years?
Vice did a article in 2022 about the psf.
At approximately 600-strong, the group is largely autonomous, operating independently of Somali government control. Exactly who then owns the PSF?
The “Dianos”, that directed the militia for three generations. First Osman Abdullahi Diano, then two of his sons ran the group. In 2018 Mohamed Diano replaced his brother Asad Diano, who ran against the current President of Puntland for the state leadership role.
Their mother was the head of projects and logistic support to the PSF. Other family members were put in similarly plum positions. This primed the family to stand up various other entities related to security, especially allegedly, a fuel company, which further benefited from American counterterrorism support.
Puntland Security Force (PSF), a militia that the CIA created and which Navy SEALS have been mentoring since the early 2000s. The PSF was built to fight the al-Qaeda-backed militant group al-Shabaab. Its headquarters are in Bosaso, a major port city in Puntland, a semi-autonomous, coastal state in Somalia’s north.
The whole fact that they [the Diano family] went to war with the Puntland state and the argument was ‘
this is our own project’ ' unnka leh"
PSF
the PL military had a split and was in an internal bloody political brawl over the
military resources that the US had supplied the group before about 750 American military personnel withdrew in January 2021
US forces took the majority of their arms with them but US-made mortars, as well as guns from other sources like battered AK-47s among other kit, remain
The USA trained and equipped forces and left without making the proper handover and configuration, Causing PSF and military to fight over who controls weapons and troops.
During the December standoff, PSF soldiers even moved from frontline positions where they were combatting al-Shabaab, back to their Bosaso headquarters to fight PL Military forces.
VICE World News notes
that mortar shelling caused much of the death and destruction in Bosaso at the end of 2021. “A mixture of 81/2 mm, as well as 60 mm mortar shells, were fired into the civilian community, killing and wounding a number of civilians,”
PSF also damaged Ayaan hospital, the main hospital in town, and killed a hospital staffer by indiscriminate shelling. Hospital staff had slept in the hospital for three days because they could not get out safely.
The mortar fire also damaged a hospital, the State House and local businesses, and, along with the overall fighting, caused the
reported displacement of about 100,000 people - nearly half of the population of Bosaso.
Weapons were directly supplied to the Puntland Security Force in Somalia but after the US withdrew, the group split and fought internally over control of the US-supplied assets.
www.vice.com
