Wednesday March 27, 2024
By ABDULKADIR KHALIF

Former Somali presidents Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed are showing rare unity as the country debates how to write its new constitution.

On Saturday, they converged in Garowe town, the capital of Puntland, one of the Somalia’s Federal Member States.

The two former leaders held meetings with Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni and other politicians including legislators from the bicameral parliament in Mogadishu.

The move was significant especially since they were on opposing sides during the 2022 presidential election in Somalia.

In fact, they hadn’t agreed on anything since 2017 when Farmaajo became president.

After the meeting, Farmaajo and Ahmed issued a nine-point statement on Sunday, expressing firm opposition to current Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

They blame his administration of initiating changes to the provisional constitution without consulting.

Since February 12, the bicameral federal parliament has been debating the first four chapters of the provisional constitution to amend sections in line with inputs submitted by the government.

The two ex-presidents, however, see a faulty process being used in reviewing the constitution that could lead to fragmentation of the national unity.

The two leaders’ statement emphasised the importance of keeping national unity and government integrity.

They claim that some kind of manipulation is being used by the administration to push the legislative to amend the constitution using input from a select group of politicians.

“We urge the lawmakers to stand united and resist making unlawful changes to the constitution,” the statement outlined, insisting that a constitution is a social contract.

Further, the former presidents poured scorn on Mohamud for not honouring an earlier agreement predestined to solve the tensions between the federal government and Puntland.

Deni who had skipped several meetings of the National Consultative Council (NCC), a gathering of the leaders of the two levels of Somalia’s government, argued President Mohamud manipulating the legal review for personal achievement.

The NCC had been a caucus to discuss a proper working relationship between the federal government and federal member states: Jubbaland, Puntland, Hirshabelle South West and Galmudug. It was including the Mayor of Mogadishu.

In May 2023, an NCC summit which Deni skipped, approved a series of measures as input into the constitution.

They included abolishing the post of prime minister and instead Somalia having presidential arrangement led by a president and vice-president.

Another point reached by the NCC, which did not please Puntland, the two former presidents and many other politicians, is the proposal for Somalia to have only two political parties.

Former president Ahmed repeatedly insisted that the two-party system is contrary to the multiparty system enshrined in the provisional constitution.

“Two-party system is not the same as multiparty democracy that the initiators of the constitution chose,” he said in a recorded video message last week.

Farmaajo and Ahmed saw security as the most pressing issue for Somalia, especially in the face of feared terrorists.

They argue that that a more valuable work is to take care of the forces, arm them adequately and ensure that the country becomes more secure.

“Instead of venturing into changing the constitution, it is rather beneficial to focus on the country’s security,” the statement further stated.

“We urge the current administration to embrace the path to empowering the armed forces and liberate the country (from the menace of terrorism),” it added, recalling that it took years to build the army.

They warned that will continue on the right path to minimise the divisiveness and instead forge more unity.

“Continuing to mess up with the constitution will only result in more divisions,” they added.

The two former presidents’ position fully converges with a statement made by Abdirahman Abdishakur, an MP who became the president’s first Special Envoy for Drought and Climate Change in 2022.

“All the president wants is to create a situation where the country is constitutionally paralysed that there will be no election, hence, a continuation of his tenure via indirect extension,” he argued.

Ahmed was transitional president from 2009 to 2012 while Farmaajo is predecessor of Mohamud after the May 2022 elections.

Task and Purpose
Wednesday March 27, 2024
BY JEFF SCHOGOL

Somalia remains a battlefield in the War on Terrorism.

Troops from Somalia’s elite Danab, or “Lighting” brigade recently took part in this year’s annual Justified Accord military exercise for the first time, during which they trained with U.S. service members on how to conduct urban operations and counter unmanned aerial systems, defense officials said.

Trained and mentored by U.S. and international advisers, the Danab unit is a special operations unit that plays a critical role in the Somali government’s fight against al-Shabab, a terrorist group that has pledged its allegiance to al-Qaida.

The U.S. military also routinely targets al-Shabab with airstrikes. The most recently announced strike, which took place on March 10 around 71 kilometers southwest of the country’s capital of Mogadishu, is believed to have killed three al-Shabab fighters, according to U.S. Africa Command.

From Feb. 27 to March 7, soldiers with Danab participated in the Justified Accord exercise, which was held at the Counter Insurgency Terrorism and Stability Operations Training Centre in Nanyuki, Kenya.

The training that the Somali soldiers received will be helpful in the fight against al-Shabab, said 2nd Lt. Abdirahim Muse Mohamed, a Danab special forces platoon commander.

Mohamed, who joined Dabab in 2016, said the counter-drone training that his soldiers received during Justified Accord will help them avoid being detected by al-Shabab on the battlefield.

“Most of everything we did here, we will apply in operations,” Mohamed told Task & Purpose in a Feb. 29 interview.

He added that Danab is at the tip of the spear in the fight against al-Shabab.

“The difference between us and the other units is the training we get from the U.S. guys,” Mohamed said. “We get a lot of benefits because they get us and they mentor [us]. They give us whatever we need.”

Danab’s participation in Justified Accord was especially gratifying for Command Sgt. Maj. Reese W. Teakell, the senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa.

Teakell’s first combat deployment was to Mogadishu in 1993 as an Army Ranger. That was the year of Operation Gothic Serpent, the famous battle in which U.S. service members were killed that was later immortalized in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down.”

“With less than one year of experience in the Army, that experience had a tremendous impact on my development as a Soldier and Army professional,” Teakell told Task & Purpose. “To be here 30 years later — and to see where we are — Somali Army Soldiers here in Kenya participating in Exercise Justified Accord, it’s not just important for improving regional security, it’s personally satisfying.”

The exercise with Danab soldiers took place amid the backdrop of the impending end of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, or ATMIS. Thousands of troops from African Union nations are expected to withdraw from Somalia by the end of this year.

While the Danab soldiers benefit from the training they get from the U.S. military, they will soon have to face a much larger force of al-Shabab fighters without any help from African Union peacekeepers, said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington, D.C.

Al-Shabab is more like a standing army than an insurgent organization at this point, Roggio told Task & Purpose in a March 20 interview. Its fighters are organized in a military fashion, and it governs a significant amount of territory in Somalia.

“Assuming the African Union troops leave by the end of the year, the U.S. can’t possibly train enough Danab forces or any Somali forces to withstand what’s coming,” Roggio said. “But the U.S. can help them organize in a fashion that gives them areas to control and govern and to resist al-Shabab.”

Wednesday March 27, 2024

The five sailors from the Ruen ship hijacked in December off the coast of Somalia, which was released by the Indian Navy 9 days ago, have returned to Varna. They flew home from Oman via Turkey.

The Bulgarian Navy shipping company has confirmed that the ship Rouen is currently in Oman and it is not yet known where it will go.

The sailors will most likely hold a press conference after the ship’s captain returns to Varna. Captain Alexander Kalchev, director of the Bulgarian Navy Shipping Company, said that the sailors are stressed and their families do not want to make media appearances before they recover.

The ship Rouen was held captive by Somali pirates since December 14, 2023.

Wednesday March 27, 2024

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) on Monday organized Ramadan iftars, a dinner to mark the breaking of the daily fast, and delivered food aid packages to families in need in Croatia, the Republic of Congo, Peru, Yemen and Somalia.

TIKA started the distribution of food packages to 1,000 families in need living in Croatia during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month for fasting from sunup to sundown and piety, according to a statement by the agency.

Also, some 150 people attended an iftar dinner at the Congolese Islamic Supreme Council Center in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

The agency set up iftar tables for five days at the mosque within the Peruvian Islamic Association in the Magdalena Del Mar region of Lima, the capital of Peru. Some 800 people came together for the iftar program.

In Yemen, TIKA set up an iftar dinner for 300 refugees and orphans aged 7-14.

The aid agency also organized iftar programs in orphanages in various regions of the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia and distributed clothes to orphans.