Villa Somalia Accused of Sponsoring Silent Coup Against South West State President

[Deeq A.]

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has yet to rein in plotters seeking to unseat South West State President.

Baidoa (PP News Desk) — As the South West President’s term of office ends in a month’s time, disagreements over how to organise elections have emerged. The new administration at Villa Somalia sponsored what Parliamentary Speaker Adan Madobe termed as reconciliation conference to take place in Baidoa. Successive meetings held in Mogadishu and organised by President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen’s rival politicians preceded the mooted conference. Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, the founding President of South West State, leads the “opposition” politicians eager to unseat the incumbent President.

Villa Somalia seeks assurances from the Ethiopian troops in South West State following security pact signed in Ethiopia by the South West State and the Somali region of Ethiopia three months ago. In 2019 Ethiopian troops facilitated the arrest of Mukhtar Robow after he had expressed his candidacy for South West State Presidency. Several months ago Robow was appointed the Federal Religious Affairs and Endowments Minister. His brother, Ibrahim Robow, was appointed to head the National Intelligence and Security Agency regional office in South West State allegedly to facilitate the silent coup against President Laftagareen.

Adan Madobe was drafted in to help with the “silent coup”.

“If NISA cannot appoint a regional commander either for Puntland State or Jubbaland State, there is no point to pretend it can appoint one for South West State” a radio journalist in Baidoa told Puntland Post reporter.

President Laftagareen recently said that elections would take place without interference from any authority. The plan to hold elections has been affected by the federal government the sees its tenure as opportunity to instal pro-administration governments in South West State and Jubbaland. Last week South West State President paid a visit to Puntland to forge ties in the form of a inter-state cooperation council aimed at pre-empting the power-grab at the state level by Villa Somalia.

Sharif Hassan expects that pressure on Laftagareen could result in a change of administration in Baidoa soon.

President Laftagareen has won moral support from Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni, who opposes interference in South West State elections. Earlier last week, the Parliamentary Speaker Adan Madobe held a meeting with US Ambassador to Somalia Larry E. André, Jr. about the “reconciliation” conference, a move that, according to one analyst, “smacks of diplomatic impropriety in a country recovering from
civil war”.

At a summit a summit held in Mogadishu two months ago President Hassan Sheikh Mohamed committed himself to non-interference policy, but given the outbursts of senior government officials backing the “silent coup” against President Laftagareen, he may be repeating the mistakes of his first term of office, too early again.

© Puntland Post, 2022

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