President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Undermines the Sovereignty of Somalia

[Deeq A.]

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud puts his personal ambitions before the national interest of Somalia. His knee-jerk policy-making has deservedly undone the authoritarian and cliquish political system he aims to impose on Somalia.

Mogadishu (PP Editorial) — At the Villa Somalia mosque today, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud advanced an absurd theory about Jubaland State President Ahmed Mohamed Islam. “For thirteen years, he has never liberated any district outside Kismaayo,” said President Mohamud. Who is the commander-in-chief of Somalia, whose responsibility it is to take the fight to terrorist groups? The flaw in the fight against Al-Shabaab is evident in President Mohamud’s leadership.

Ceelbuur was liberated from Al-Shabaab on 25 August 2023, only to be recaptured by the group in 2024. In 2022, the Federal Government of Somalia, under the leadership of President Mohamud, dedicated resources and manpower to the Ma’awisley movement. The untrained civilians bore the brunt of the losses during the battles against Al-Shabaab. Why did civilians face battle-hardened Al-Shabaab fighters when the Somali Army could do the job?

Perhaps arming civilians against well-resourced terrorist groups is a theory he expounded in his embargoed PhD dissertation. Arming clans in Galmudug and Hirshabelle against Al-Shabaab revived intra-clan hostilities. In 2023 Ma’awisley militias  of an Abgaal sub-clan attacked the villages of a rival sub-clan in Middle Shabelle.

Today, the Federal Government of Somalia issued a condemnatory statement  against the deployment of more Ethiopian troops in Gedo. President Mohamud violated the 2008 agreement between the former Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia, which resulted in the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia in 2009. In 2024, his administration signed a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia to deploy Ethiopian troops outside the AMISOM mandate. In 2023, his second administration signed a defence pact and intelligence-sharing agreement with Ethiopia. His cosy relations with Ethiopia soured when Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, signed a maritime Memorandum of Understanding with the Somaliland administration, a secessionist entity that rejects Somalia’s sovereignty.

It can plausibly be argued that President Mohamud plays fast and loose with the sovereignty of Somalia. Somalia is a country fully dependent on peacekeeping forces. There was no need for a defence pact with Ethiopia. A country with a government that is unable to control its borders cannot aspire to sign a defence agreement with another country.

The UN Security Council views Somalia as a country that poses a threat to the world due to the inability of its government to root out transnational terrorism exemplified by Al-Shabaab. This institutional incapacity gives countries such as Ethiopia grounds or pretexts to invade Somalia (Kenya did so in 2011 and 2012 on self-defence grounds or pretext).

The Federal Government of Somalia is now at war with the Jubaland State of Somalia, a situation that underscores the futility of the Friday sermons President Mohamud delivers in the Villa Somalia mosque to hangers-on who uncritically accept his claims. The President puts his personal ambitions before the national interest of Somalia. His knee-jerk policy-making has deservedly undone the authoritarian and cliquish political system he aims to impose on Somalia. He has caused significant harm to the sovereignty of Somalia.

©Puntland Post, 2024

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