SOMALIA: Human rights offices closed in Puntland
NAIROBI, 5 MAR 2003 (IRIN) - The authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have ordered the closure of the offices of several local human rights groups, according to a senior official in the region's commercial capital, Bosaso.

Abdishakur Mire Adan, the Puntland deputy information minister, told IRIN that the region's internal affairs minister, Ahmad Abdi Habsade, had made the announcement in a decree publicised on Wednesday.