The president of Somalia’s stable Puntland region has said that the region does not foreign peacekeepers, but said that Puntland is “ready to help” in anyway to restore peace across Somalia, Radio Garowe reports.

Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole told a VOA Somali Service interview on Thursday that Somalia needs peace restored and effective national institutions to be rebuilt.

“We [Puntland] did not secede from Somalia. The pain in Mogadishu and southern Somalia is also our pain. We are ready to help in every way to stabilize the country and to invite the international community in terms of financial resources and peacekeepers and we welcome this,” President Farole said during the interview.

But the president was very clear that Puntland does not need foreign peacekeepers to be deployed within Puntland.

“Puntland does not need any foreign troops. We suggest that foreign peacekeepers be deployed south of Puntland, such as in areas controlled by Ahlu Sunna militia,” President Farole said, while referring to a pro-government militia based in Galgadud region.

Earlier this month, the regional bloc IGAD called for the expansion of African peacekeepers from the approved force-level of 8,100 soldiers to 20,000 troops to help Somalia's weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG) restore order in the face of an insurgency led by Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab militants.

President Farole's comments come at a time the African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda, is pushing African countries to contribute soldiers to the 6,000-strong AMISOM peacekeeping force in Mogadishu.

The Republic of Guinea and the Republic of Djibouti have both expressed support to join AMISOM troops, according to AU officials.

Located in northeast Somalia, Puntland has been relatively stable since the outbreak of the Somali civil war in 1991. Al Shabaab and other militants have failed to infiltrate Puntland, although the militants are blamed for assassinations of Puntland officials since 2009 in an effort to destablize one of Somalia's most stable regions.

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GAROWE ONLINE