Las Anod

Las Anod (Somali: Laascaanood, Arabic: لاس عانود‎) is the administrative capital of the northern Sool province of Somalia. The city was part of the Dervish State until 1921, when it was incorporated into the former British Somaliland protectorate.

Local control is disputed between the Republic of Somaliland, Puntland.

History

During the pre-independence period, Las Anod served as an early center for Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's Dervish resistance.

On October 15, 1969, while paying a visit to the city, Somalia's then President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards. His assassination was quickly followed by a military coup d'état on October 21, 1969 (the day after his funeral), in which the Somali Army seized power without encountering armed opposition — essentially a bloodless takeover. The putsch was spearheaded by Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, who at the time commanded the army.

Following the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, separatist figures in the present-day Somaliland region in northwestern Somalia unilaterally declared independence from the rest of the country and laid claim to the Sool province and its capital Las Anod. In 2002, a re-organized Puntland government took over administration of Las Anod, with the consent of the city's residents. Due to delays in infrastructure spending in Sool, some locals felt disenfranchised and sided with Somaliland in the latter's October 2007 occupation of the area. Since Somaliland militarily seized the city, some 20,000 civilians have moved away. Large protests have also been staged in the city against visiting delegations from Somaliland. Additionally, the Puntland authorities have condemned the occupation and demanded that Somaliland withdraw its troops.