Bacaadweyn, Puntland — President Said Abdullahi Deni today inaugurated construction of the Bacaadweyne-Galkayo road—a 40-kilometer lifeline that should have been built with African Development Bank funding but will instead be financed entirely through Puntland’s own revenues after federal obstruction killed the international partnership. The groundbreaking was attended by local officials and community leaders.
The road project’s tortured history illuminates the mechanics of what development economists term “bureaucratic violence”—the use of administrative procedures as weapons of political warfare. The African Development Bank had approved funding for the Galkayo-Harfo road as part of its Somalia Road Infrastructure Programme, recognizing the route’s critical importance for connecting pastoral communities to markets, facilitating humanitarian access, and spurring economic growth in one of Somalia’s most marginalized regions. Yet for three years, the project languished in Mogadishu’s bureaucratic maze, hostage to political calculations that prioritized federal control over regional development.
The Federal Government’s blockage of the Bacaadweyne-Galkayo road exemplifies what behavioral economists term “negative-sum thinking”—accepting losses to ensure opponents lose more. Mogadishu forfeited not only the direct benefits of infrastructure development but also the positive spillovers that would have strengthened Somalia’s overall economy and international reputation.
Mogadishu’s Export of Failure
The Federal Government’s obstruction of Puntland’s infrastructure development embodies a systematic attempt to export Mogadishu’s dysfunction to the only regions of Somalia that have achieved relative stability and progress. While the capital struggles with daily Al-Shabab attacks, rampant corruption scandals including the theft of Danab rations, and the inability to control even its own neighborhoods, it simultaneously works to ensure that functioning regions cannot surpass its dismal standards.
This perverse dynamic reflects the zero-sum mentality that has infected Somalia’s federal leadership. Mogadishu’s security forces cannot prevent mortar attacks on the airport or suicide bombings at popular beaches, yet resources and political capital are diverted to blocking development projects in peaceful regions. The message appears clear: if the Federal Government cannot provide security and services, it will ensure no one else can either.
The corruption that permeates federal institutions finds expression in the obstruction of regional development. This creates a particularly bitter irony; those who profit from dysfunction work systematically to prevent functional governance elsewhere, as if competent administration in Puntland might expose their own failures by comparison.
The Security Paradox
While Puntland successfully conducts operations in the Al-Miskad mountains against both Al-Shabab and ISIS, capturing foreign fighters and maintaining territorial control without ATMIS support, the Federal Government’s response involves hampering the infrastructure that would strengthen these capabilities. This mirrors the larger dynamic where Mogadishu, unable to secure its own territory despite massive international support, actively undermines the security successes of regions that achieve stability through their own efforts.
The Federal Government’s deployment of troops to Ras Kamboni to challenge Jubaland’s elected leadership, even as Al-Shabab retakes districts in southern Somalia, exemplifies this misallocation of security resources. Every soldier used for political intimidation, every bureaucrat focused on obstructing regional development, and every dollar spent on undermining federal states represents resources unavailable for the counter-terrorism mission that justifies international support. In essence, Mogadishu has become a greater obstacle to Somalia’s security than any external threat—using the machinery of government to ensure that no region can demonstrate what effective governance might achieve.
