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Somaliland frees four Puntland soldiers captured in war

Storyline:National News

Four  Puntland soldiers who were held by the breakaway Somaliland as  prisons of war have finally regain the freedom after being in jail for two months.

Puntland authorities welcome the four who had been under Somaliland custody since the july military clashes between Somaliland and Puntland.

“Some of them are prisoners of the Puntland-Somaliland war, which broke out on July this year were brought back,” said Puntland MP, Mohamed Adan Anjeeh,

Anjeeh said the authorities in the two territories had been engaged in several  negotiations that culminated in the release of the captives.

Both Somaliland and Puntland are in the north of the Horn of Africa nation and have enjoyed relative peace, while the south of the country has been mired in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Somaliland, formerly the colony of British Somaliland, claims independence as a sovereign nation.

Puntland remains part of greater Somalia but generally administers its own affairs through its own military and government institutions.

The two have fought for years over the Sool and Sanag regions, part of which Puntland claim on an ethnic basis while Somaliland says they are part of its territory under the colonial border Britain left.