Somalia's PM resigns in line with the Kampala Accord

As I predicted last week in an Op-Ed piece Mohamed Abdillahi Farmajo, the prime minister of Somalia, has quit despite putting up a fierce fight against IGAD. In the end, he did not even have a date with the so-called Somali lawmakers, the rubber-stamping body largely serving the interest of the regional body of IGAD.  He had simply read the script and rightly knew that they (parliamentarians) would not save his skin under the watchful eyes of Sharif Hassan. The Ugandan army general and his delegation, who visited Mogadishu this week, had delivered Yoweri Museveni’s ultimatum and completed the formality of the Kampala Accord by pushing PM Farmajo over the cliff despite his initial resistance. What I learnt from informed sources in Mogadishu and now almost in the public domain is chilling; Farmajo was told to go or face the consequences i.e. that his life is no longer save in Mogadishu. The ease at which PM Farmajo quit abruptly after his initial standoff with the Ugandan delegation supports this theory. Call it the law of jungle, but this is exactly what is happening in the Somali capital. How is AMISOM’s threat then different to Al Shabaab’s? One might ask.

For those who know little about the background of current Somali parliament, the lawmakers were not elected or chosen by the public but simply funded their way to Mbagathi where TFG I of Abdillahi Yusuf, the predecessor of current TFG, was formed. Hence, they are accountable to nobody but themselves. Even the initial support shown by Mogadishu residents for the man (Farmajo) they admire for his gutsy standoff with the two evil Sharifs and their IGAD backers has inevitably subsided in the face of Museveni's threat.  Moreover, the focal and the vociferous support shown by the Diaspora community all over the world for his government have gone in vain too. He was simply tossed out from the seat of government and the glimmer of hope that had come with his promising reign is now a distant memory.  It is back to square naught for Somalis. One small step forward; two giant steps backward. Why a working government has been dismissed? This is a question that begs thousands of answers.

The IGAD regional body which groups Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, among others, has put this nation exactly where it wanted it to be:  a state of helplessness.  IGAD is dominated by the nemesis of Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, whose common interest is to keep this nation in this perpetual limbo.  Somalia was abandoned by every conceivable friend, including Muslim and Arab brothers.  With Somalia’s Arab brothers and allies in the middle in political upheavals and struggling to come to terms to their old age failure in Palestine, Somalia is simply left for the hyenas in Nairobi and Addis Ababa to feast on its flesh, with Zenawi of Ethiopia having the time of his life. The Western countries have no economical interest in Somalia as it has no proven mineral resources including the black gold, otherwise they would have been descending into it like vultures, the same way they landed in Kuwait and Iraq respectively.

Their only interest in Somalia is to contain the threat posed by Al Shabaab group and the scourge of piracy off the Somali coast, and they failed on both counts.  More than two dozens of nations are heavily involved in the fight against piracy off the Somali coast often killing innocent fishermen, with little return for their investment which runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. The best way to fight against Al Shabaab terrorism as well as the pirates in the Somali waters is to strengthen and empower the TFG, or whichever Somali government in power. This will cost a fraction of what they are currently pouring into the fight against both fronts – Al Shabaab and the piracy in the Somali waters.

Over the past few years, many regional experts have urged the United States and its Western allies on more than one occasion that they should put money where their mouth is i.e. fund and support the TFG but to no avail. The cruel irony is the fact that the international community (IC) is more than willing to pour millions into this bottomless pit called AMISOM, the ineffective peace-keeping African army whose main job is to protect Villa Somali and escort the two Sharifs and their IGAD backers to Aden Adde international airport, whilst denying the Somali people and TFG the much-needed funding to fulfill its daily obligations. The TFG or any other Somali government that comes after it cannot simply function without getting direct funding from the international community. Bu all TFG got thus far is pledge after pledge. This is hypocrisy at its ugliest face.  When the real man behind the sacking of PM Farmajo, Sharif Hassan, arrived at Aden Adde airport, he was immediately welcomed and escorted to his home by a contingent of gun-wielding AMISOM army. This clearly illustrates in graphic details how the two Sharifs are crucial to IGAD and their Somalia project despite being hated and despised by much of the Somali community everywhere.  

I have to conclude this article with that famous Somali adage that we are all familiar with: Ceelna uma qodna, cidna uma maqna (there is no helping hand in sight).  Somalis should start thinking deep and hard about the fate of their country as it slides towards total collapse and in the history dustbin is almost complete, if not already completed. The infamous and rather cruel Kampala Accord stipulates that IGAD and their international partners, not Somalis, have the ultimate say in the running of Somali affairs. It is incumbent on all Somalis wherever they are, particularly those in the Diaspora community who have the means and the liberty to liberate their country from the grip of IGAD, to start the process of salvaging their nation now.  A Few more years down the line, there might be no country to come back and call home. As for the Somalis back home, it is time to do or die as there are no more options left for them. They are already dying in a slow and painful death in their own homes. With the help of their own kith and kin, their homeland is usurped by their old age enemies. A Kenyan lawyer recently suggested in an opinion article that Somalia should be divided into two halves. The process of dismembering Somalia into two halves is already underway, with Ethiopia and Kenya adding their spoils to the land they had already seized from Somalis with the help and connivance of colonial administrations.

Twenty years ago we violently brought down a working government, albeit a military dictatorship. Then the victorious clan militias, instead of reconstituting a viable and all-inclusive government that belongs to all Somalis, turned their guns into each other which culminated to the current state of affairs where the country is no longer under their control.  It is high and propitious time for all Somalis regardless of their clan allegiance to put their differences aside and repossess their country back from IGAD before it is too late. Otherwise, the “Kurdish curse” is beckoning.

Mohamed F Yabarag
WardheerNews Contributor
E-Mail:myabarag@yahoo.co.uk

Related Articles:

- Sharief Eats Farmajo,Thanks to Gunboat Diplomacy
- One Last Advice for Sheikh Sharif!
- PM Farmajo is gone, so May be the last hope of Somali revival
- The Kampala Accord: Is Sharif Hassan less Somali than Sharif Ahmed?
- To Get Out Of The Current Impasse, Dump The Dummies
- Kampala Accord: A setback for the TFG and the International Community

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