“I was ordered by the Interior Ministry to hand the four French nationals we arrested today over to Djibouti security officers. This was after Djibouti requested our government, and we enjoy a cordial relationship with Djibouti, so we obliged,” Governor Bu'ul told Somalia Report.
Bu’ul said the four they apprehended, all holding French nationality, were born in different countries. He confirmed two were of Senegalese descent, a woman hailed from Morocco and the fourth also held Polish nationality. An Interior Ministry official who wish to remain anonymous corroborated Bu’ul’s statement, and said the four suspects arrested were aged between 20 and 32 years. He added that they aroused suspicion when they entered Somaliland through a rarely-used route, and were apparently running from Djibouti security officers who were in hotly pursuit.
"They told us that they were running from the Djibouti government who wanted to deport them to their countries of origin. But we also found that they appeared very religious, and found Quranic literature written in the French language,” the Interior Ministry official added.
Somaliland's Awdal region shares a border with Djibouti, but during the administration of former president Dahir Riyaale Kahin, the new region of Salal was created with land from Awdal.