Public Works Ministry Announces Hargeisa Electricity Agency Takeover

On 10 April 2014, Somaliland Sun reported that Somaliland's Ministry of Public Works, referred to in the report as the ministry of roads and housing, announced it would take over management of government electricity machines from the Hargeisa Electricity Agency. At the time, the minister was Hon Abdirizaq Khalif Ahmed.

The ministry said, as reported by Somaliland Sun, that it had arranged to buy new machines to supply electricity to the city after two weeks of blackout in some areas. It also said power was expected to resume within a few days using the previous machines, five of which had been operating but had failed to work, according to the ministry.

Somaliland Sun reported that hundreds of households in the capital were in darkness after the Hargeisa Electricity Agency ceased to supply power. The report also claimed thousands of residents had been consuming government-supplied electricity, and that patients were discharged from a government hospital because of the power cut, though the hospital was not named and the claim was vaguely worded.

The report does not establish what happened after the announcement. It provides no evidence that the ministry actually took control of the machines, that new machines were purchased, or that power was restored. No subsequent reporting is available on the agency's status or the ministry's follow-through.

The report itself contains uncertainty: the headline says the ministry "assumes control" while the body uses the future tense, and the ministry's name is not consistently given as "Ministry of Public Works" versus "ministry of roads and housing". No primary ministry document, order, or budget was cited.