The central bank governor of Somalia has unexpectedly resigned after seven weeks in the job, citing corruption concerns, in a blow to donors who have promised to pour billions of dollars of aid into the failed state.
Yussur Abrar, who was one of the world’s few female central bank governors, was unavailable for comment on Friday.
Donors who support her were frantically trying to reach her on Thursday night. They believe that she sent her resignation letter, dated October 30, from Dubai, before travelling to an unknown destination.
One donor official said Ms Yussur was “scared for her life and so unlikely to return to Somalia”.
In her letter to Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Somalia’s president, she said: “From the moment I was appointed, I have continuously been asked to sanction deals and violate my fiduciary responsibility to the Somali people as head of the nation’s monetary authority.”
In the strongly worded letter, seen by the Financial Times, Ms Yussur – a former banker at Citigroup who had not lived in Somalia for several decades – said she believed that these deals “put . . . frozen assets at risk and open the door to corruption”.
Somalia is recovering from decades of civil war and also faces an Islamist insurgency from al-Qaeda-linked jihadis who mount regular attacks on the capital and claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack on a Nairobi shopping mall last month.
Donors have pledged billions of dollars to help secure and rebuild Somalia at recent conferences in the hope that it can make good on recent military gains against the militants.
But they fear that the new government – elected last year and seen by analysts as the most representative and promising for years – might repeat the gross corruption seen by its donor-backed predecessors.
A report from a UN investigative panel this year gave warning that the central bank doubled as a corrupt slush fund and said that it failed to account for transfers worth $12m. Ms Yussur said in her letter: “Unfortunately, the central bank has not been allowed to function free of interference, and as such cannot operate as a credible institution.”
A government spokesman insisted on Friday that President Hassan remained committed to reforming institutions in his country. “All he wants is to ensure [that] public finance is managed properly and that there’s no corruption,” he said, adding that Ms Yussur was selected for her “impressive CV on finance”, but had visited Mogadishu for “only a couple of days”.
“For her leaving so early [it] is very sad. She was given the empowerment to reform the central bank and how the system works – most of the systems are manual,” he added.
In her letter, Ms Yussur also said she “vehemently refused to sanction the contract” with Shulman Rogers, a US law firm contracted to recover overseas assets frozen since before the civil war started in 1991. The same company was also hired to discredit the UN allegations of financial mismanagement ahead of a Brussels aid conference at which donors ultimately pledged $2.4bn, in what UN experts said was a conflict of interest. The law firm has previously denied any conflict of interest and said the UN experts made unfounded allegations.
Without adequate security, the efforts of the Somali Government and people, and those of their partners, could be in vain, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations said today, calling on the Security Council to support a temporary boost to national and international forces aiming to maintain basic security in the Horn of Africa nation.
“Without a sufficient level of security, what we have worked so hard for could be sacrificed,” Jan Eliasson, who just returned from a visit to the capital city of Mogadishu, said in a briefing to the Council.
He said the attack in June on the UN in Mogadishu and the terror attack on a mall in Nairobi in September underline the intent of the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab to force an international retreat from Somalia and to inflict suffering on Somalis in order to erode their confidence in the peace process.
“This is why we must support AMISOM and at the same time invest in Somali national forces as well as in protecting our staff,” Mr. Eliasson stated, referring to the African Union Mission in Somalia by its acronym.
Somalia has been torn asunder by factional fighting since 1991 but has recently made progress towards stability. In 2011, Al-Shabaab insurgents retreated from Mogadishu and last year, new Government institutions emerged, as the country ended a transitional phase toward setting up a permanent, democratically-elected Government.
The UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), set up in June, is working to support the Government and the people of the country in their quest for security and prosperity, while AMISOM, created in 2007, conducts peace support operations to stabilize the situation and to create conditions for the conduct of humanitarian activities.
Mr. Eliasson said that while he came away from his visit heartened by the commitment of the country’s Government and people to peace, development and human rights, “the moment of hope in Somalia is fragile.”
A security mission carried out by the AU and the UN found that, after 18 months of successful operations that uprooted Al-Shabaab from major cities, the campaign by AMISOM and Somali forces has in recent months “ground to a halt.”
The Deputy Secretary-General was informed by the AMISOM Force Commander that neither AMISOM nor the Somali army has the capacity to push beyond areas already recovered. “Their hold of the existing territory would be tenuous if the current status-quo continues,” he said.
“While these forces remain largely static, Al-Shabaab is mobile and is training and recruiting substantial numbers of frustrated, unemployed young men. There has been a surge in deadly attacks,” he noted. “Although weakened, the insurgency is still able to conduct terror operations – not only in its areas of control, but in Mogadishu and Kismayo, and elsewhere – as we saw in last month’s horrific attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.”
Therefore, Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon and the AU have jointly recommended that AMISOM and Somali forces need a “significant temporary boost” to maintain the basic security required for peacebuilding, as well as to respond to the evolving threat from Al-Shabaab.
“The recommended enhancements for AMISOM, including helicopters and other enablers, will allow the force to regain the initiative against the insurgency and to recover strategic locations that are exploited by Al-Shabaab to generate revenue, and to recruit and train combatants,” said Mr. Eliasson.
“The recommendations for non-lethal and logistic support to the Somali National Forces – medical support, transport, tents, food and fuel – are equally critical,” he added. “This would enable the Somalis to operate effectively alongside AMISOM, improving their capacity to hold cleared areas until the Somali National Police can take over, with AMISOM police support.”
Mr. Eliasson urged the Security Council to find ways to adequately provide for this support, pointing out that this would also substantially facilitate the crucially important recovery and development efforts of the UN and other actors on the ground.
“It is hard to ask for additional resources in our present difficult financial environment. But it is my duty to advise this Council that, without increased support, our present – and indeed past – investment in peace, and that of millions of Somalis, may be lost.”
In a related development, the Secretary-General today announced the appointment of Fatiha Serour of Algeria as his Deputy Special Representative for Somalia. Ms. Serour replaces Peter De Clercq of the Netherlands, who served as Deputy Special Representative since the establishment of UNSOM and was recently appointed Deputy Special Representative for the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
The Kenyan military said its warplanes bombed targets held by al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Somalia on Thursday, in retaliation for an attack on a Nairobi mall that killed at least 67 people.
The Kenya Defence Forces said they destroyed a training camp used by the members of the al Shabaab Islamist group who attacked the Westgate Mall on September 21. A Kenyan drone strike killed two leading members of al Shabaab on Monday.
“This was part of a broader mission by the AMISOM (the U.N.-backed African peacekeeping mission in Somalia), targeting where the Shabaab were training. Those attackers at the Westgate did their training there,” Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a spokesman for the Kenyan military, told Reuters.
“We have been monitoring this particular area over a period of time, and we moved in when we got the green light.”
The camp had over 300 fighters, many of whom are believed to have been killed or injured, the KDF said in a statement. Oguna said raids on the Islamists’ strongholds would be sustained.
Al Shabaab denied there had been any attack.
“No military camp of ours in Somalia was air struck or attacked,” Shabaab’s senior media officer told Reuters, adding that its fighters had attacked Badhaadhe town in the south.
Kenya’s military said the “major aerial offensive” in the Dinsoor region completely destroyed the training camp at Hurguun and at least 4 “technicals” – improvised fighting vehicles – and a weapons store.
LONDON, 30 October 2013 (IRIN) – Never has the UK’s Somali community taken so much interest in a court case. Dahabshiil Holdings Ltd, by far the biggest company remitting money from the UK to Somalia, has taken Barclays to court to try to prevent the bank closing down its account, without which the company says it cannot legally continue to operate. Other remittance companies have already had their accounts closed, because of what banks say are security concerns about money laundering and terrorism.
Faced with this threat to the system by which they support their families back home, the community has mobilized on an impressive scale. And they have got the government involved. Rushanara Ali, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow in east London, who has many Somali constituents, had been one of those leading the campaign. She told a recent public meeting on the issue: “Everyone understands that banks are under pressure from US regulators, but what we are asking is not unreasonable – simply that there should be a proper, safe way of getting money to loved ones around the world… But let me tell you, the UK government would not have taken an interest in this issue if you hadn’t exercised your political muscle.”
The protesters have lobbied Barclays Bank on a fleet of bicycles, handed a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to the prime minister’s office, and persuaded one of Britain’s best known sportsman to be the face of their campaign. Double Olympic gold medal winner Mo Farah comes from a Somali family, and says he too uses the money transfer services to help support his relatives. “Of course he does,” campaigner Sulekha Hassan told IRIN. “Any Somali who says they don’t use these services is lying.”
Barrage of indignation
The barrage of indignation, not just from the Somali community, but also aid agencies like Oxfam who use money transfer operations to fund their activities in Somalia, may have startled the government into paying attention, but Barclays, which was the last major British bank still willing to hold accounts for the money transfer services, has stuck by its decision.
Tom Keatinge, a former banker who worked on a government study of the issue, says it all goes back to the attack on the World Trade Centre.
“The amount of compliance work we had to do went through the roof. I counted up the number of terrorism finance and money laundering trainings I had to do over my last 18 months, and it was 15. We were told all the time, ‘Avoid any business that involves cash transfers. Avoid any business that involves third party involvement – in this case money going via Dubai to somewhere else.’… What’s happening now is collateral damage from a regulatory environment which has gone way out of control since 9/11.”
Keatinge told IRIN that banks like Barclays are not so worried about falling foul of British regulation; this is all about the United States. “I think if you look at the dominant pressure that global banks feel, that pressure is from the US. And access to the US market, the dollar market, is the lifeblood of many banks. So from that you can deduce that while the UK regulator is important, the existential regulator is the US.”
The irony – not lost on the government – is that the demise of large, visible, regulated companies like Dahabshiil will only result in money going through less visible channels.
Oxfam’s Ed Pomfret says it does not make sense to say you want more control and transparency, while closing down the only regulated channel. “The only result will be more money moving in suitcases.”
Procedures being tightened
The response from the industry and the British government has been to try to tighten procedures to allay the banks’ fears. The money transfer companies in the UK already go beyond legal requirements and demand proof of identity from everyone sending money, even small sums. They say they will do whatever is necessary to comply.
Meanwhile, the government has set up an action group involving all concerned government departments. These have been given a work plan which will include the Treasury increasing its supervision of the companies and working with them on training and improving their skills. The National Crime Agency will share threat assessments with banks entering the money transfer market and provide them with alerts on risks within the sector. And the Department for International Development, DFID, is to work on setting up a “safe corridor” pilot for Somalia, along the lines of a system already working for Pakistan, which will track payments right through, from sending, through clearing to eventually receiving the money.
But to get this in place is going to take around a year. How will people be able to send money meantime? Well, having their own bank account is only a legal requirement for the larger money transfer companies, those handling more than three million euros a month (just over US$4 million) – which between Britain and Somalia at the moment is only Dahabshiil. Smaller companies are allowed to process their transfers through a “wholesale” Money Service Business – as long as these MSBs remain willing to work with them. But the Somali Money Services Association, SOMSA, warns that these cash processing companies are also starting to come under pressure from their own banks to stop handling transfers to Somalia.
Aid agency payments – OK
NGOs should be all right, because Dahabshiil says it has found a small UK bank willing to handle aid agency and corporate payments. And one company will be able to continue operating because it does not deal with cash or rely on banks, but instead sends money to mobile phones, using the international telecoms infrastructure. But this at the moment is only practical in Somaliland, where mobile cash transfers are already commonplace.
The bigger unresolved question is whether, even when a safe corridor has been built and all the new safeguards are in place, the banks will be willing to get back into what is, after all, only a modestly profitable business. What if they still refuse to reopen the accounts? “They could still do that,” the chairman of SOMSA, Abdi Abdullahi, told IRIN. “And it’s very likely. We’ve been asking then what we should do. We are ready to do anything that is do-able, but they won’t give us any criteria.”
Barclays responds
Responding to a change.org petition, Barlcays said it “remains committed to responsibly supporting the remittance industry and we recognise the benefit that money transfer firms provide to local communities around the world. We are happy to continue to serve companies who, in our opinion, have sufficiently strong anti-financial crime controls and meet our eligibility criteria.”
In a separate public statement the bank said:
“In recent months we have had to take some difficult decisions around money transfer businesses. We understand and appreciate the important role these businesses play in helping people to transfer money around the world, in some cases to places where there is great need of financial support. However Barclays has an obligation to operate within the rules and regulations set by governments and regulators in the countries in which we do business. Failure to do so would result in Barclays being prosecuted by regulators around the world and potentially fined many hundreds or potentially billions of pounds.
“Money transfer businesses are a particular focus for regulators given the risk of them being used for money laundering or funding terrorism. We deeply regret that any client has to look for alternative banking arrangements, however Barclays’ stakeholders rightly expect us to do our best to uphold the law and the regulations.”
So what then? There is the interesting precedent of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company which uses animals for pharmaceutical testing. When, in 2001, it became “unbankable” because of pressure from animal rights campaigners, the Bank of England – which is not normally a retail bank – provided banking facilities to prevent it going out of business. Abdi Abdullahi says SOMSA has asked the government to facilitate the temporary provision of banking services, either with the Bank of England or with the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is currently 80 percent government owned. But so far, he says, the government has not responded.
There is a saying “We have met the enemy and He is us” and the same applies to Somalis as we are our own worst enemy. We acknowledge the need for unity and solidarity, but our actions and behaviors show otherwise. Disunity and miss-communication are the norms amongst our leaders and the syndrome of “Aan wax qalano, mindiyahana kala qarsanno” is wide spread. Our Somali intellectuals are defaming one another, searching the faults of one another and such war of words are emotionally detrimental to our young generation who are reading, seeing and listening. It is difficult to attain unity and brotherhood without eradicating these ills from our heart. These symptoms are even evident in many of our Islamic scholars. We see some of our scholars using the Quran and Hadith merely to score points and as ammunition to defeat one’s opponents. For the knowledge gained by our Somali religious scholars and intellectuals to bear fruit, they need to harmonise their head and heart, have constructive dialogue and use emotions intelligently.
Words used in a destructive manner are more lethal than any weapon as it leaves scars to the human soul. This is what made the cost of the Somali conflict unbearable in terms of the loss of human life, physical and emotional scars. The hostile relationship has got integrated into our society; history got written and passed down through families, painting one’s own side as virtuous and the other side as evil. These messages are heard over and over again from one’s parents, one’s teachers, one’s friends and it got very hard to question or oppose such beliefs. For example, youth within Al -Shabaab were the recipient generations that grew up in violence and bitterness and their leaders took advantage by channeling their anger and frustration destructively. High youth population is the greatest asset we have and failure to nurture and channel their energy constructively will result them to be our greatest liability.
The main problem we have today is that there are many young Somalis abroad and home who to a great extent changed their apparent way of life and calling for a change and establishment of religion. However, there are many, some amongst this category, who have only changed the external behaviour and yet they have failed to change internally. If the change was sincere, then we would not see symptoms of arrogance and impoliteness in them. The same arrogance that was in them before is the same arrogance here. The only difference is that arrogance is being channeled to different directions and displayed elsewhere. When our youth witness this in their behaviour, they should realise that although there is sincerity, there is misguidance and although there is true concern, they are channeling their faculties, strength and their abilities to the wrong direction. One of the first signs of true change and repentance is humbleness and humility. If arrogance still remains, then that is not a true change, because arrogance is classified as the mother of all diseases.
The Somali conflict today has reached a point where no one side is getting any closer to achieving its goals and no one is happy with the situation (It is un-winnable). Historically, our ancestors have experienced similar situation and left us a list of proverbs and poems to shed light on our current experience. But the problem is that we view our ancestors is as if they hold no importance for us and they lived in times so different from our own that they are incapable of shedding light on our experience. But history does matter. It has been said that “he who controls the past controls the future”. Even the doctor, to get accurate picture of one’s state of health asks for his/her medical history. One’s health is heavily influenced by the past (Your heredity, past behaviours, past experiences are all important determinants and clues to your present condition). Therefore, we need to look inwards for solutions, if we are to have any hope turning this prolonged conflict around. Let us offer few old Somali proverbs based on conflicts that can shed light on our current situation:
• Masaar geed ma goyso ee geed kalayse ku gooysaa (Gudiney ima aad gooyseene ee qayb iga mid ah baa kugu jirta).
• Rag waxaad walaal uga waydid waran ugama heshid.
• Ninkii habeenkii codkaaga yaqaano, maalintiina raadkaaga yaqaano lalama coloobo.
• Rag Waday oo waayay waxay walaalow ku dhaamaan.
• Rag I daa kugumo daayo ee aynu isdayno ayuu kugu daayaa.
No one can offer quick fix solution and overnight resolution to change our current situation. But we cannot let ourselves fall into complacency, must be willing to get our hands dirty, and take ownership of our current problem. Not addressing a problem head-on today creates bigger one tomorrow. Tomorrow’s problem may end up to be the results of today’s short sighted solution. In order change our current situation, firstly we need to reform our heart at individual level as Allah will not change our situation until individuals change and individuals will never change until the heart is reformed. It is the individuals who make up the Somali nation. With regards to achieving unity and brotherhood, the prophet in simple hadith prescribed the following actions:
“Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales; and do not look for the others’ faults and do not spy, and do not be jealous of one another, and do not desert (cut your relation with) one another, and do not hate one another; and O Allah’s worshipers! Be brothers (as Allah has ordered you)!”- Sahih Al Bukhari, Vol. 8 Number 90
These ills are all related to the heart and our biggest problem is that we all want the final thing (Unity, Solidarity and Brotherhood), but want to miss out on things the prophet SCW mentioned before unity and brotherhood. We many times draw our own wrong conclusion about a word somebody said or has written and it is becoming rare to see someone give his brother a benefit of the doubt. By doing this, we have failed on the first step of the prescriptions given above. We need to suppress our commanding soul inside us and eradicate the above mentioned ills from our heart. There is Rwandan proverb (who themselves experienced civil conflict) that says “You can outdistance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you”.
Finally, with regards to the conflict between Alshabaab and the government, we all have tendency to support a zero-tolerance policies and evidence shows such policies costs a lots of money and results are questionable. Using force alone is like using Aspirin to cure a brain tumour, it may relieve the pain but not provide the cure to brain tumour. We really need long-term commitment to dialogue and reconciliation and re-frame the problem to open up a whole new set of solutions (Social reform). The main problem is that people underestimate the costs of continuing the conflict, and overestimate their chances of winning. Therefore the Government should not abandon its pursuit of peace via dialogue and reconciliation, it is never easy and often one step forward two steps back.
Also Al-Shabaab leaders must look at the difficult circumstances the Somalis are in due to this prolonged conflict and change their direction towards pursuing peace. It is important to note that Peace demands the most heroic labour and the most difficult sacrifice; it demands greater heroism than war. It is an opportune moment for us Somalis to make our resolution for the beginning of this new Islamic Hijriyah year, the year Somalia migrated from war and disunity to peace and togetherness.
Explosives expert behind “many deaths” among three men killed in missile attack on four-wheel-drive
A US drone strike in Somalia killed three senior al-Shabaab commanders including an explosives expert who had “a major role in the death of many innocent civilians”, officials said on Tuesday.
The missile attack targeted a Suzuki four-wheel-drive as it made its way along a road leading from a town wh ere US special forces mounted a failed night-time assault earlier this month.
Among those killed in Monday’s strike was Ibrahim Ali Abdi, the head of al-Shabaab’s bomb-making division, who planned the group’s suicide missions and directed the preparation of attackers’ vests, road-side explosives and car bombs.
He was among the most senior members of al-Shabaab, and was thought to be responsible for strikes inside Somalia against government officials and the African Union peacekeepers.
The fact that President Barack Obama authorised the mission to kill him signalled that Washington would now go after operatives even if they had not directly targeted American interests.
Abdikarin Hussein Guled, Somalia’s interior minister, said his intelligence services had been tracking Abdi, also known as Anta-Anta, for some time before the US drone mission took place.
“The operation in which this man has been killed was very important for the government,” Mr Guled said.
“This man had a major role in the death of many innocent civilians and his death will help in bringing back peace.”
The other two men in the four-wheel-drive were named as Abdikarim Kibi-Kibi and Warsame Baalle, deputy commanders of two al-Shabaab units controlling large areas of southern Somalia.
The drone strike came a little over a month after a suspected al-Shabaab cell killed 67 people during a four-day siege of the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya.
The three commanders were understood recently to have been in Barawe, a coastal town that is al-Shabaab’s new stronghold and which was the target of a US Navy Seals raid earlier in October.
The Seals were on a mission to arrest Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, also known as Ikrima, another senior al-Shabaab commander. Ikrima escaped.
(Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone strike killed at least two Islamist al Shabaab insurgents driving in a car south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, residents said on Monday.
Ibrahim Ali, believed to be al Shabaab’s lead explosives expert, was among the dead, one U.S. official said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, without offering details on how the United States carried out the strike.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for a September attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi that killed at least 67 people.
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Witnesses to Monday’s strike said the drone fired a missile at the car in the outskirts of Jilib town in the Middle Jubba region, some 75 miles (120 km) north of the port of Kismayu in the country’s South.
“This afternoon, I heard a big crash and saw a drone disappearing far into the sky, at least two militants died,” said Hassan Nur, a resident in the area.
“I witnessed a Suzuki car burning, many al Shabaab men came to the scene. I could see them carry the remains of two corpses. It was a heavy missile that the drone dropped. Many cars were driving ahead of me but the drone targeted this Suzuki,” he added.
Other residents at the scene also said they had seen the strike. Somalia officials and police were not immediately able to comment, largely because the rebels control a vast area around where the drone struck.
Al Shabaab officials declined to comment.
Al Shabaab was driven out of Mogadishu in late 2011 and are struggling to hold on to territory elsewhere in the face of attacks by Kenyan, Ethiopian and African Union forces trying to prevent Islamist militancy spreading out from Somalia.
Still, Western nations are worried that Somalia will sink back into chaos and provide a launchpad for Islamist militancy despite a fragile recovery after two decades of war.
Al Shabaab, which is affiliated with al Qaeda, said in January 2011 that a missile launched from a drone had killed Bilal el Berjawi, a Lebanese al Shabaab fighter who held a British passport.
Another missile killed four foreign militants south of the Somali capital Mogadishu in February 2012.
Nairobi, October 29, 2013–Journalist Mohamed Mohamud, commonly known as “Tima’ade,” succumbed to gunshot wounds on Saturday and died at Medina Hospital in the capital, Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ. Unidentified gunmen shot Mohamed, a reporter for the popular, privately owned, U.K.-based Universal TV, on his way to work on October 22 in the Wadajir district of Mogadishu.
Mohamed, who had been shotsix times in the neck, chest, and shoulder, died of internal bleeding around 10:30 p.m. on October 26, local journalists said. He was an outspoken journalist who covered social and security issues in the capital, local journalists said. It is not clear who carried out the attack, although a Twitter account claiming to represent Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab took responsibility for the shooting.
The Somali government denounced the attack. On Twitter, Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said, “Government won’t tolerate any violence against journalists. There must be no impunity for these cowardly thugs who want to take Somalia backwards.”
“CPJ sends its deepest sympathy to the family and colleagues of Mohamed Mohamud, the latest in a string of brave young reporters to be killed in Somalia,” said CPJ East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes. “Condemning these killings is not enough-authorities must do more to apprehend murderers who have struck with total impunity in 2013.”
At least four journalists and media workers have been murdered for their work in Somalia this year, and no arrests have been made, according to media reports. Somalia ranks second on CPJ’s Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free.
Mohamed, 26, had returned to Mogadishu from Nairobi in 2011. He was laid to rest on Sunday and is survived by his wife and daughter.
In 2007 the African Union fully joined the efforts to resolve Somalia crisis by launching AMISOM peacekeeping mission in Somalia. This was one of the numerous international initiatives to resolve Somalia conflict, which began in 1991, after the downfall of President Mohamed Siad Barre.
Though the mission is considered to be productive, on the other hand there are some issues which need to be fixed to enable its smooth progress.
In diplomacy rules, ethics and transparency are must to be adhered and fully respected. So that diplomats and other officials helping them to perform their duties should have specific tenures to serve in the countries they are assigned to. In Dec 1991, then Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, after consulting incoming Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, he asked then Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs James O.C. Jonah to visit Somalia and become the first UN envoy for Somalia affairs.
Mr Jonah was replaced by Algerian diplomat Mohamed Sahnuni, and then followed by Ismat Kitani, who was appointed on 3rd November 1992. Others who followed include Admiral Jonathan Howe, James Victor Gbeho, Francois Fall, Augustine Mahiga and the current UN Somalia chief, Nicholas Kay. Replacement of other senior and junior officers always accompanied these UN appointments of its envoys to Somalia.
But an investigation carried out by the Wagoshanews investigative journalism team (Wagoshanews is an independent multilingual Somali website based in Kismayu and Nairobi), reveals that most the AU officials have been working with the mission since 2007, when the mission was launched.
Though the AU sent three diplomats to serve as its envoys to Somalia during the seven years of AMISOM existence, on the other hand many may wonder why some officials holding other crucial offices have not been replaced since their appointments.Though these diplomats have been working hard to help resolving Somalia’s two decades of civil war, they also developed a suspicious close relationship with certain Somali clans, causing a major concern among other Somali clans.
Somalia has been in clan power struggle for a long period soon after the creation of the Somali Republic in 1960.
Its common to spot the AU officials having tea and mingling with certain clan politicians in Nairobi, Mogadishu, and in many other places around the globe.
Some my argue that their unquestionable lengthy presence in Somalia of seven years is to blame for their suspicious relations with some Somali groups.
The suspicious friendship between AMISOM officials and some Somali political groups took a shocking turn in 2009 and 2010, when some AMISOM officials were seen in Nairobi hotels campaigning for Azania group led by warlord Mohamed Abdi Gandi.Some members of Somali clans told the Wagoshanews desk that they felt being pushed aside when dealing with AU officials, and claimed that members of other clans are dealt as darlings by the AMISOM officials.
AU should at least carry out and inquiry to clean its house, so that the world can continue to have a confidence in this biggest African body.
The world is currently facing economical and security challenges, and its an insult to the taxpayers of European countries, to use their money for an operation that is not delivering the expected results.
The eyes of the whole world are on Somalia, and all the key players including Somali government, AU, EU UN and other stake holders should not allow their efforts to be derailed by some individuals, who are pursuing their own interests.
Its time for the EU, UN and other international agencies to review the performance of AMISOM and ask AU to adhere the ethics and transparency rules in their Somalia mission.
Mogadishu – Security forces shut down one of Somalia’s most respected independent radio stations on Saturday in Mogadishu, accusing it of illegally occupying a government building, witnesses and police said.
Armed officers cordoned off the building located near the Somali capital’s airport and arrested journalists inside in a raid that comes four days after the interior ministry ordered Radio Shabelle to leave the premises.
The interior ministry claims the building, which Radio Shabelle has used for four years, is government property.
“I saw some of the workers of the radio being forced onto a truck. They were taken to the criminal investigation department,” said Osman Ayanle, a witness.
Journalists in the building broadcast news of the raid as it was happening, before being shut down.
“Radio Shabelle has ignored and even rejected a letter from the interior ministry ordering them to leave the government building,” a police officer said.
Lawsuit
The closure had “nothing to do with Radio Shabelle’s current activities”, the officer added. “We gave them the time to leave and they refused, that’s the reason for the raid.”
Radio Shabelle said its occupation of the building was legal and they had an agreement with the transport ministry. Before the widespread violence that broke out in Somalia in 1991, the building had belonged to a Somali airline.
On Friday the radio station posted a statement on its website saying it had filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court which the Court had thrown out, and the regional court had also rejected the case.
“In that regard, we have decided to stay in the premises and resist the move, we will rather die inside the building instead of having been killed outside,” it said.
The radio station said it also wanted to stay in the building because of its proximity to the airport, where security is high.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
Eighteen media professionals including at least four from Radio Shabelle were killed in Somalia in 2012 – the east African country’s deadliest year on record, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – and more than 50 have been killed in the last six years.
At least six media workers have been killed this year.
Attacks on journalists are often blamed on Islamist al-Shabaab fighters battling the internationally backed government, but some are also believed to be linked to a settling of scores within the multiple factions in power.
In 2012 Radio Shabelle won the prize for press freedom awarded every year by RSF.
