Somalia: President Abdulahi Yussuf and the mess he left behind

[SOO MAAL]

Somalia: President Abdulahi Yussuf and the mess he left behind

 

 

Somali president, Mr. Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is in New York for the United Nation’s 60th anniversary summit. About 150 head of states are meeting in New York, USA. Representing Somalia at this meeting is one step forward for Somalia’s interim government which was established in Nairobi, Kenya last year.

 

The president will share with the rest of the world information about the mess he left behind when he flew from a makeshift small airport near Jowhar town, his temporary office - unimaginable public disorder. Somalia, a country of about 12 million people has been going backwards for the past fifteen years. Colonizing a new land of its size would be much easier and cheaper than to rehabilitate ruined Somalia. Once called African Pearl for its beautiful beach, the capital is now controlled by more than a dozen feuding warlords, self-employed gunmen and militias loyal to business tycoons who have been strangling the city for over a decade now.

 

Time will tell if President Abdulahi is the right man for undertaking this monstrously enormous task of reviving Somalia. The bright side of his long curriculum vita includes his leadership in Puntland (a good junk of the country) before his current job as the head of Somalia which he gained after two-year-long national reconciliation conference in Kenya. As Puntland president, he never allowed armed opposition of any size which saved that region from the kind of chaos that plagued many parts of the country, including Mogadishu. On the other side, he is the undisputed father of Somalia’s fall. It is true that he was the commander of the first armed rebellion in Somalia’s history. He escaped to Ethiopia after a failed coup in 1978 and established his armed rebellion against then president Mohamed Said Barre near the border between Somalia and Ethiopia. Somalia was in a downward spiral from that day. Now, his desire to rule Somalia angered many militia leaders in the south who see him as direct threat to their advantage over the rest. More than ten militia leaders who control most of the south are flexing their muscles with emergency meetings and media campaigns. One after another, they all said the time to defeat Ethiopia and its puppy in Somalia has come.

 

Ethiopia Factor

 

The new president has very close ties with Ethiopian government which gives his rivals undeniable propaganda tool – remind the public about Somali land and people under Ethiopian rule. Ethiopia occupies Somali land the size of almost one third of sovereign Somalia and has always been Somalia’s sworn enemy.

 

The two nations have fought many wars including the infamous 1977 in which world superpowers, Soviet Union and the USA were involved. Somalia, one of the most powerful countries in Africa at that time won the first round of the war capturing city after city deep inside the disputed territory. Somali fighter jet pilots were at one point begging for permission to bombard Adis Ababa after they knocked out much of Ethiopian air defense. The country was in a victory mode in this phase of the war. Somali government started recruiting future civilian administrators of the region and a total victory seemed inevitable. Military man, Mohamed Siad Barre didn’t like that the soviets were arming both sides and foreign communist fighters from Cuba, East Germany and other countries were fighting were aiding the Ethiopian side. Somalia’s ruling military partly decided to dump the Soviet after they secured America’s support. After the last Soviet person was expelled from Somalia, President Carter of the USA decided not to engage war in East Africa with the Soviets, and Somalia was crashed in a humiliating defeat. After the tables were turned and Somalia started losing the war, Siad Barre decided swift retreat which angered many commanders in the war who later tried to overthrow him in 1978. After hundreds of thousands of lost from both sides lost their lives, Somali military was pushed back to the original disputed border.

 

Rebellions

 

Both Ethiopia and Somalia started to recruit rebellions from the other country after the war. Melle Zanawi and Isaias Afwerki, Ethiopia and Eretria’s current presidents respectively were trained, armed and hosted in Somalia. They used Somali passports to travel while struggling with Ethiopian regime at that time. Coincidently, President Abdulahi Yusuf of Somalia was being hosted by Ethiopia at the same time. Both regimes fell but Ethiopia was saved from ugly and prolonged civil war by its people. Adis Ababa was never looted when Mogadishu’s loot of national infrastructure and private properties continues today.

 

Religion Role

 

Somalia is Sunni Muslim country and its first system of choice was democracy since it was colonized by western countries. That system and western influence ended with 1969 military coup by Colonel Mohamed Siad Barre who took communism over democracy. Religious leaders who graduated from Egyptian and Saudi universities were outlaws and prosecuted under the communist regime while traditional sheiks (wadaado) were allowed to teach Islam in mosques and private Koran schools for children. After the fall of Siad Barre’s regime, Middle East oil rich countries poured the country with humanitarian aid which gave them influence in the general public. They built schools and water wells, and invested in private ventures like Islamic universities. Thousands of Saudi educated men came back to Somalia and started teaching Islam and starting businesses.

 

Armed religious group, Al-Ittihad Alislami tried to kill President Abdulahi and capture the port city of Bosaso when he was ruling Puntland in early 1990s. They failed and paid a dear price in the region. Now, like Siad Barre, Abdulahi Yusuf prefers traditional self-educated sheiks over the new breed from the Middle East. The war of words between the two sides is getting lauder by the day. Mogadishu religious leaders, of whom some armed to the teeth, said they are mobilizing all of their assets to wage jihad war against what they called Ethopia and ist puppy in Somalia. Abdulahi and his group fought back with labeling those men localized Al-Qaeda. Which camp is right? It all depends on who you ask.

 

Mogadishu Black Hole

 

The most powerful man after Siad Bare, General Aidid was killed in Mogadishu. The first and second Interim governments headed by Ali Mahdi and Abiqasim Salad Hassan respectively were defeated by Mogadishu warlords who are now determined to do the same one more time. The question that boggles everyone’s mind is what do Mogadishu strong men want and how long will they hold Somalia in hiatus?

 

Abdulahi’s government will either do what its predecessors could not and succeed in triumph, or it will be defeated by Mogadishu warlords and religious leaders who will then go back into hibernation until another group with national ambitions comes to their turf.

 

Somali People

 

Somali people populate the horn of Africa and had indigenous tribal governance system before the western colonizers came into the region divided it among themselves. Three sections were taken by European colonizers and became British Somaliland, French Somaliland and Italian Somaliland while Ethiopia and Kenya annexed the remaining. British and Italian Somaliland got their independences and joined in 1960. The French part got its independence in 1977 and became sovereign Djibouti. Ethiopia and Kenya still control their shares of Somali land and people.

 

Source: Somalilandnet. http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/917)