Mogadishu (PP Commentary) — In Halgan iyo Hagardaamo, revealed in 2012, the previous President of Somalia, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, argued that Ethiopia has an existential phobia concerning the reconstitution of the Somali state. His idea, developed in 1982 when Ethiopia captured Galdogob and Ballanbaale and claimed to have annexed the 2 districts in violation of the African Union — a transparent indication that the previous Soviet Union fanned inter-country battle in Africa — didn’t sound believable.
The signing of the maritime Memorandum of Understanding between Muse Bihi Abdi, President of the Somaliland administration, and Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, in January 2024 furnished the late Somali president’s idea with plausibility. Why did Ethiopia signal a maritime MoU with a Somali secessionist administration a number of weeks after the Defence Minister of Somalia signed a defence pact along with his Ethiopian counterpart in Addis Ababa?
With out repealing the defence pact with Ethiopia, the Federal Authorities of Somalia excluded Ethiopia from ATMIS forces in Somalia. This displays the extent to which Abiy Ahmed stays a political novice, nonetheless imbibing imperial desires that briefly enabled Ethiopia to turn into a hegemon in East Africa. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud labored laborious to accommodate Ethiopia’s pursuits, satisfied that no aspiring Somali politician can attain political objectives with out counting on Ethiopia in a technique or one other.
Throughout his first time period in workplace, his authorities signed a bilateral settlement with Ethiopia in 2014 to deploy Ethiopian defence forces as peacekeepers outdoors the mandate of ATMIS (then AMISOM). This transfer violated the settlement between the previous Transitional Federal Authorities of Somalia and the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, which had resulted within the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia in 2009.
The alliance Somalia shaped with Egypt and Eritrea this yr, coupled with the awarding of offshore oil exploration rights to Türkiye, signifies that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud instrumentalises agreements for private political objectives. Villa Somalia, the presidency, controls the bicameral legislature, predisposing federal establishments to turn into political instruments for Damuljadid, President Mohamud’s clique, to consolidate his political community in Mogadishu.
The Mufti of the Federal Authorities of Somalia, Sheikh Ali Wajis, lately advised an interviewer that “anybody who opposes the Federal Authorities of Somalia is committing sedition, and the Authorities should use the brand new peacekeeping forces to disarm clans.” He added that Spain handled a renegade area and that “the Federal Authorities of Somalia should do the identical to renegade Somali areas.” For the some Mogadishu elites, the exclusion of Ethiopian troops from ATMIS is a chance to centralise energy in Mogadishu for the advantage of clans who view Somalia’s capital as a stronghold they conquered in 1991.
© Puntland Submit, 2024
