Somali Stability Depends on More Than Just Counterterrorism Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo attends his inauguration ceremony in Somalia s capital Mogadishu, February 22, 2017. Feisal Omar / REUTERS January 22, 2021
Print Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo attends his inauguration ceremony in Somalia s capital Mogadishu, February 22, 2017. Feisal Omar / REUTERS
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Among the Trump administration s many eleventh hour decisions that will require quick review by President Biden’s team was the choice to withdraw nearly all U.S. military personnel from Somalia. The move left some deeply concerned that the absence of U.S. training and advice would leave Somali security forces unable to counter terrorist organizations at a time when the future of the African peacekeeping force, AMISO
GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: The UN should conduct parliamentary elections in Hiiraan and Gedo regions, a Mogadishu based think-tank has said, urging the UN body to take an active role in pressing the country’s leaders to break the electoral deadlock.
Heritage Institute for Policy Studies (HIPS) said in a new brief the Federal Government and the respective Federal Member States should pull out from the electoral process in the two regions owing to their partisan interests.
“Given the volatility of the situation, we propose that the UN electoral support team is given an exclusive mandate to organize the elections in those provinces with the support of the state electoral management body,” HIPS said.
Somali President Farmaajo Attempts a Silent Coup
Farmaajo’s broken promises have set Somalia back by decades and his obsession with holding onto power has already torn the country apart.
While the world was in shock over the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump seeking to overturn the American election results, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo was engaged in his own silent coup to ensure a return to power after his term ends in February 2021. In fact, the similarities between the Somali president and his American counterpart are startling: Both came to power as outsiders that promised to change the status quo, both are Republicans from New York state, and both assumed power around the same time. Their governance styles, characterized by hubris, dysfunction, and highly confrontational methods, are almost identical as well.
Somalia Federal Election 2021: Need for Dialogue, Compromise and Consensus
The mandate of Somalia’s current bicameral parliament ended on December 27, 2020, and the presidential term ends on February 7, 2021. Between July and September 2020, four conferences were held and attended by leaders of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and Federal Member States (FMS): three conferences were held in the Galmudug state capital of Dhusamareb, and one conference was held in Mogadishu. In September, FGS President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ‘Farmajo’ chaired a meeting with five FMS leaders, whereupon they agreed on a revised election model known as, “Electoral Constituency Caucuses”, which was consistent with the 4.5 power-sharing system, and very similar to the 2016 Indirect Elections model. The 2020 election model is a lackluster attempt at broadening the 2016 electoral process; with 101 clan-delegates selecting each federal parliamentarian, thus doubling the number of delegatevo
GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: Ethiopia’s military chief and the president of Oromia state where PM Abiy Ahmed hails from secretly visited Mogadishu on Friday where they held talks with President Mohamed Farmaajo as Somalia heads to elections.
Goobjoog News can authoritatively report that General Birhanu Jula Gelalcha, the chief of general staff of Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and the president of Oromia state Shimelis Abdisa travelled held closed-door with Farmaajo Friday.
The substance of the talks was not immediately clear but sources close to Villa Somalia told Goobjoog News the issue of elections and ENDF forces in Somalia was the main subject matter. Farmaajo and Abiy have forged a political relationship in the last two years that has seen them visit each other’s countries.