News in English – Hadalsame Media

Somalia has reached its debt relief milestone. Now the real work begins

hadalsame — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 19:06:05 +0000

(Hadalsame) 13 Dec 2023 – As Somalia secures $4.5bn of debt relief from the IMF and the World Bank, the country’s president outlines the decade-long path it took to reach this goal – and looks towards a better, if still difficult, future.

Debt relief is just the beginning of real change for Somalia. The country has been suffocating under the huge weight of unsustainable debt for more than three decades. Between 2012 to February 2017, when I led the first internationally recognised government since the collapse of the state in 1991, we realised quickly that we had to re-engage with all the international financial institutions and our bilateral and multilateral creditors to address this crippling impediment to our economic development.

Somalia owed more than $5bn (£3.9bn). And the interest and charges on these debts kept mounting. As a new government in a post-conflict state, fighting international terrorism, but with the ambition to rebuild Somalia, we had to act.

There was no way to repay the debt given the deep-rooted economic challenges facing our fragile country. Accordingly, we embarked on a rigorous but fruitful debt relief journey through the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which required the Somali government to undertake significant and challenging yet strategic macroeconomic and social reforms to address institutional weaknesses, enhance public trust in government, transform the economy and create opportunities for our people.

Somalia’s debt relief journey was no simple task; it took nearly a decade, three different administrations, two presidents and four finance ministers to attain debt relief from the boards of the World Bank and IMF on 13 December.

Ironically, in Somalia’s highly active and competitive political landscape, achieving debt relief was one of the key unifiers of political actors of all persuasions. Furthermore, the process ensured there was a systematic review by the Somali government and people of their own economic history, fiscal borrowing and the socioeconomic destruction of almost three decades of civil war. In fact, most of Somalia’s unsustainable debts is accrued interest payments that could not be serviced during the painful, prolonged period of state collapse.

Somalia’s economic reform efforts focused firmly on rebuilding the fundamentals of state institutions, including improving public financial management, good governance, transparency, accountability and state-citizens relations. Underpinning all of these was the absolute priority – which remains to this day – of raising domestic revenue to cover the cost of running federal government, supporting Somalia’s federal member states and investing in essential public services such as education and health.

Upon finally reaching the end of the debt relief journey, we have a credible national budget, predictable and expanding domestic revenues – which we seek to continually increase – and strengthened public financial management systems, as well as the laws, regulations and policies that all these are anchored on.

We have improved our data-generation capacity to better inform our policymaking so that interventions can be targeted at the most vulnerable in our society. Furthermore, we have made crystal clear that corruption will not be tolerated, and we have used the law to prosecute public officials who have been accused of misappropriating public funds. This is in direct contrast to when we started the economic reform programme, when none of this existed.

At the beginning of the economic reform journey, like most post-conflict states, we were muddling through amid all the other structural problems we faced. Now we have a clear vision and direction to build a better and more inclusive economy guided by an inclusive National Development Plan.

It is heartening to know that in all the years of implementing Somalia’s economic reform programme, we have not backslid once, despite enormous security and cyclical climate crises. In this regard, it is important to recognise the support of all of Somalia’s valuable bilateral and institutional partners who worked closely with us to provide technical assistance, budget support, advice and even encouraged our progress on the international stage.

For the different political administrations in Somalia that were implementing the tough global programme to rebuild our economy while living with major terrorism and climate disruptions, this was appreciated. A key lesson from Somalia’s debt relief journey is that engaged and supportive international partners who are ready to listen and work with developing nations on their priorities will help to accelerate reforms in any context.

Escaping Somalia’s huge debt burden has many benefits. We have normalised relations with former creditors and can now access new concessional financing where required for development investment, as we continue to strengthen fiscal fundamentals with the reform lessons learned.

We have proven to ourselves and to international partners that we can reform and shift away from the detrimental stigma of “failed state” to a new reality of hope and possibilities. However, despite these clear successes, a key challenge, as for other countries that benefited from debt relief in the past, is debt sustainability and management in this age of global economic slowdown and recurring shocks.

Climate funding must be faster and easier, says deputy PM of flood-hit Somalia

Somalia will still have moderate but sustainable debt levels. We plan to escape a return to the debt trap by utilising our strategic location, young population and vast natural resources to grow our economy. We are focused on attracting investment in all our key competitive areas – agriculture, livestock, green energy and the blue economy – to create opportunities and jobs to build socioeconomic and climate resilience. This is enhanced by our recent membership of the East African Community, which should open new markets.

In an age of interconnectivity and interdependence, fragile states like Somalia should not be left alone to bear the cost of financing global challenges such as the impact of global terrorism and climate change. Addressing these is a global public good and more accessible and predictable financing must be available to facilitate not just immediate short-term stabilisation and mitigation measures, but also long-term, scaled-up adaptation and community responses.

This is the only realistic way to ensure that countries like ours do not constantly have to make trade-offs between investing in vital basic public services and addressing a climate crisis to which we, with our limited resources, barely contribute. If we are to ever achieve sustainable development, there must be serious conversations on equitable burden sharing for financing development internationally.

Somalia has finally reached the debt relief milestone. This is a moment for our government and people to be proud. However, we also know that the hard work of sustaining economic reform and creating progress for our people has just started – amid the most difficult international economic environment.

Dr Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia

Hadalsame Media

The Americans who got away with murder in Somalia

hadalsame — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 18:41:34 +0000

(Hadalsame) 27 Nov 2023 – On the morning of 1 April 2018, Luul Dahir Mohamed was on her way to visit her brother in the Galguduud region of central Somalia. She wanted to meet his children for the first time. Her brother, Qasim Dahir Mohamed, was supposed to pick her up. But they could not reach each other on the phone, and so Luul caught a ride in a maroon Toyota Hilux pickup instead.

Qasim actually passed the Hilux on the road, and saw Luul sitting in the passenger seat. Her four-year-old daughter, Mariam, was on her lap. He waved and hooted, but the vehicle kept going.

A little while later, Qasim heard an explosion, followed by another and, after a pause, one more blast.

The news spread fast: A drone strike had hit a pickup. Qasim and his brother rushed towards the site.

When they found the Hilux, the roof was torn open, the bed was smashed, and its cargo of mattresses and pillows were aflame. Four men were dead inside and another young man lay lifeless in the dirt nearby. About 200 feet away, Qasim found what remained of Luul. Her left leg was mangled, and the top of her head was missing. She died clutching four-year old daughter, Mariam, whose body was peppered with tiny shards of shrapnel.

Qasim tore off a swath of his sarong and began gathering up small pieces of his sister. Stunned and grieving, he spent hours searching for fragments of her body along the dirt road, working by the glare of his car’s headlights as the sky darkened.

Finally, he bundled Luul’s and Mariam’s remains and brought them home. Luul’s body was so mutilated that it was impossible to properly wash, as is required in Islam. Instead, he wrapped her with care in a shroud. Luul and Mariam were buried together in a village cemetery. The next day, locals living near the strike site called Qasim. They had found the top of Luul’s skull complete with hair and a delicate gold teardrop dangling from one ear. She was only 22-years old at the time of her death.

Qasim Dahir Mohamed, who found his sister Luul’s body after the US drone strike, poses for a photo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023. Photo: Omar Faruk for The Intercept

The blindness of war in distant place

Nearly a century ago in Nicaragua, American Marines in an armed propeller plane spotted a group of civilian men chopping weeds and trimming trees far below. Convinced that something nefarious was underway, they opened fire.

The US never bothered to count the wounded and dead.

Since then, anonymous, unaccountable devastation from the air has been a feature of the American way of waging war in places like in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria.

This investigation, published in partnership with The Intercept and based on exclusive documents and extensive interviews, examines the flawed and fatal decision-making that led to one such air strike – the attack that killed Luul and Mariam. It is a story about missed connections and faulty intelligence, about Americans misreading what they saw and obliterating civilians they didn’t intend to kill but didn’t care enough to save.

When Luul and Mariam boarded the maroon Hilux, they had no idea that it was being surveilled from the sky by the American military, who suspected that several al-Shabaab militants or sympathisers were on board.

Thousands of kilometres away, in a military joint operations centre that the US government refuses to identify, members of a Special Operations task force that officials won’t name watched live footage, that they declined to release, of everyone who entered the Hilux. They recorded and scrutinised it, chronicling when each “ADM” – or adult male – got in or out, where they walked and what they did. The Americans logged these minute details with a pretence of precision, but they never understood what they were seeing.

For all their technology and supposed expertise, the Americans were confused, and some were inexperienced, according to a US Department of Defence investigation obtained by The Intercept via the Freedom of Information Act.

The investigation report is the first such document to be published about a US drone strike in Africa. It reveals that after months of “target development,” the Americans suddenly found themselves in a mad rush to kill people who posed no threat to the US in a war that the US Congress never declared. They argued among themselves about even the most basic details, like how many passengers were in the vehicle. And in the end, they got it wrong.

Qaali Dahir Mohamed shows a picture of her nephew Mohamed Shilow Muse, far right, on her cellphone in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023. Photo: Omar Faruk for The Intercept

The Americans couldn’t tell a man from a woman, which might have affected their decision to conduct the strike. They also missed the four-year-old child whose presence should have caused them to stand down.

In the joint operations centre, the Americans quickly realised their initial strike had failed to kill all the passengers and decided to eliminate what the investigation file refers to as a sole “survivor running away from vehicle post the first engagement”. But the “survivor” was actually two people: Luul and Mariam. Seconds later, another missile screamed down from the sky.

“It seemed like they did everything wrong,” said an American drone pilot who worked in Somalia and examined the investigation file at The Intercept’s request.

The next day – 2 April – US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, announced it had killed “five terrorists” and destroyed one vehicle, and that “no civilians were killed in this airstrike”. The Somali press immediately said otherwise. By the following month, the task force had appointed an investigating officer to sort it all out. He quickly determined that his unit had killed an “adult female and child” – as well as four adult men – but expressed doubt that their identities would ever be known.

According to the secret investigation, the attack was the product of faulty intelligence as well as rushed and imprecise targeting carried out by a Special Operations strike cell whose members considered themselves inexperienced. Despite this, the investigation exonerated the team involved. “The strike complied with the applicable rules of engagement,” wrote the investigator.

AFRICOM declined to answer The Intercept’s questions about the attack or civilian casualties in general. When the command finally admitted the killings in 2019, AFRICOM’s then-commander, General Thomas Waldhauser, said it was “critically important that people understand we adhere to exacting standards and when we fall short, we acknowledge shortcomings and take appropriate action”.

From left to right: Shilow Muse Ali, the father of 4-year-old Mariam Shilow Muse and husband of 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed, both of whom were killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2018; Luul’s father and Mariam’s grandfather, Dahir Mohamed Abdi; and Luul’s brothers and Mariam’s uncles Qasim Dahir Mohamed, Ahmed Dahir Mohamed, Hussein Dahir Mohamed, and Abdi Dahir Mohamed, in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May 10, 2023. Photo: Omar Abdisalan for The Intercept

“We can do whatever we want”

Some who took part in America’s drone war in Somalia dispute that. “When I went to Africa, it seemed like no one was paying attention,” the drone pilot and strike cell analyst, who served in Somalia the year Luul and Mariam were killed, told The Intercept. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to government secrecy surrounding US drone operations. “It was like ‘We can do whatever we want.’ It was a different mindset from the Special Forces I worked with in Afghanistan. There was almost no quality control on the vetting of the strikes. A lot of safeguards got left out.”

He explained that, as Americans watch targets from the sky, a series of “wickets” – such as the absence of civilians or a potential target seen associating with a “known bad guy” – must be achieved before launching a strike. “When I was in Afghanistan, you normally had to hit five wickets, and in Africa, these ‘wickets’ were lessened,” he said.

“I never really figured out what was a go or no-go in Somalia. It seemed to be all over the place. We often didn’t have all the information that we should have had to conduct a strike.”

Existing safeguards on airstrikes had been relaxed by president Donald Trump when he assumed office in 2017.

Waldhauser said the looser targeting rules allowed the military “to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion”.

Almost immediately, attacks in Somalia tripled. So did civilian casualties in US war zones including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

The US conducted 208 declared attacks in Somalia during Trump’s single term in the White House, a 460% increase over the eight years of the Obama presidency. (The Biden administration has conducted 31 declared strikes there, including 13 so far in 2023.)

There was another possible contributing factor to civilian casualties. During 2017 and 2018, commanders within Task Force 111, the military unit responsible for drone attacks in Somalia, Libya, and Yemen, competed to produce high body counts, raising red flags in the intelligence community, according to a US intelligence source who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the topic.

The US Defence Department has publicly confirmed just five civilian harm incidents in Somalia and maintains a $3-million annual budget to compensate survivors, but there is no evidence that any Somali victims or their families – including the family of Luul and Mariam – have ever received amends.

To date, AFRICOM won’t even discuss reparations with a journalist, much less provide compensation to relatives of the dead.

Airwars, the airstrike monitoring organisation based in the United Kingdom, says up to 161 civilians have been killed by US strikes in Somalia. The official number is five.

A June 12, 2018 email from a member of the Joint Task Force that conducted a drone strike that killed 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter Mariam Shilow Muse to the investigator who found that the rules of engagement and standard operating procedures were followed. Photo: Screenshot by The Intercept

Collateral damage

Over the last century, the US military has shown a consistent disregard for civilian lives.

It has repeatedly cast or misidentified ordinary people as enemies; failed to investigate civilian harm allegations; excused casualties as regrettable but unavoidable; and failed to prevent their recurrence or to hold troops accountable.

These long-standing practices – evident in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the carpet bombing of Vietnam and Cambodia – stand in stark contrast to the US government’s public campaigns to sell its wars as benign, its air campaigns as precise, its concern for civilians as overriding, and the deaths of innocent people as “tragic” anomalies.

During the first 20 years of the war on terror, the US conducted more than 91,000 airstrikes across seven major conflict zones – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen – and killed up to 48,308 civilians, according to a 2021 analysis by Airwars.

Key elements of America’s destructive brand of air war echo into the present. In recent weeks, Israeli officials have repeatedly justified attacks on Gaza by citing methods employed by the US and its allies against Germany and other Axis powers during World War II. The United Nations has said “there is already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed” by the Israeli military and Hamas militants. In Gaza, Israel has also embraced the use of “free-fire zones” – which the US employed to open wide swaths of South Vietnam to almost unrestrained attack, killing countless civilians.

We are not the enemies

Living in al-Shabaab territory in the 2010s, Luul inhabited a world almost devoid of smartphones and social media. Her family has no photographs to remember her by.

The US government, meanwhile, has countless images of Luul. Its cameras captured video of her and Mariam entering the pickup truck, and analysts had eyes on her through her last moments. Luul’s visage now exists only in classified files and in the memories of those who knew her – and in the face of her younger sister, to whom she bore an uncanny, almost identical, resemblance.

Her family have yet to come to terms with her death.

“I was bewildered at the beginning when my daughter and wife were killed. I expected an apology and compensation considering the Americans’ mistake. But we received nothing,” said Luul’s husband, Shilow Muse Ali.

“They admitted there were civilian casualties, but this investigation shows that they don’t even know who they killed.”

In the intervening years, bewilderment has turned to anger. “We aren’t the people they are targeting. We are not supposed to be treated like we’re enemies. Does the US military even see a difference between enemies and civilians?” he asked.

“We want the truth from the American government. But we already know it,” he said. “This attack shows that there’s no distinction, none at all. The Americans see enemies and civilians as the same.”

Shilow Muse Ali, Luul’s husband, poses for a photo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023. Photo: Omar Faruk for The Intercept

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center and published by The Intercept, an award-winning nonprofit news organisation dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism.

By Nick Turse

Hadalsame Media

America needs a new strategy in Somalia

hadalsame — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 06:19:52 +0000

(Mogadishu) 29 Sept 2023 – A Narrow Focus on Counterterrorism Won’t Bring Peace – Since he took office in 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden has wound down the United States’ involvement in some post-9/11 conflicts. But Somalia is a glaring exception. For more than 16 years the U.S. military has helped to wage a war against al Shabab, a Somali extremist insurgency that emerged in 2006. Under Biden’s direction, U.S. forces are still carrying out, on average, a dozen airstrikes every year and spending millions of dollars to train and equip the Somali special forces unit known as the Danab.

In one sense, Somalia has long been a footnote in the United States’ war on terror. The administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump were focused on other regions; as a result, the United States failed to develop a long-term strategy focused on resolving the conflict in Somalia. At the same time, these presidents also sought to respond aggressively to the threat from al Shabab, emphasizing the links between the local militants and al Qaeda, backing Ethiopian and African Union (AU) military interventions, and ramping up airstrikes.

By now, the United States has become content to simply manage the problem through a containment strategy—one some U.S. officials have described as “mowing the lawn,” or periodically shearing al Shabab’s capacities without seriously pushing for lasting peace in the suffering country. Now is the time to change tack. Next month, diplomats representing a so-called quintet of Somalia’s most influential security partners—Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States—will meet with Somali leaders in Ankara. At this meeting, Washington should communicate a plan for peace based on stabilization and reconciliation, not solely on counterterrorism measures.

This might sound like an expansion of the U.S. mission—an approach that is at odds with the goals of a president generally committed to winding down troubled military engagements overseas. But the truth is that al Shabab is unlikely to be defeated purely through military means. If the United States ever wants to withdraw its forces from Somalia for good, it must go beyond military containment and develop a Somalia strategy that prioritizes supporting reconciliation and helping Mogadishu stabilize its territorial gains. Washington cannot “mow” the Somali “lawn” indefinitely. It must, instead, support the growth of a peaceful Somalia that can function on its own.

SCATTERED SHOTS

The U.S. government’s involvement in Somalia had a checkered track record even before the rise of al Shabab. After Siad Barre, the brutal military dictator who ruled Somalia for two decades, was overthrown in the early 1990s, the Somali state collapsed, plunging the country into civil war. In 1993, the United States lent its support to a UN effort to distribute humanitarian aid to starving Somalis, but the mission ended with the notorious downing of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu and a firefight that killed more U.S. troops than in any battle since the Vietnam War—and well over 100 Somalis.

Throughout the next decade, Islamist militants, some with ties to al Qaeda, took advantage of Somalia’s instability to build strength. That concerned Bush administration officials, but they faced more immediate challenges in Afghanistan and Iraq and were wary of getting involved in Somalia; the memory of the Black Hawk Down debacle still shaped U.S. policy. With the U.S. Departments of State and Defense focused elsewhere, in 2005 CIA officers based in Nairobi began to pay tens of thousands of dollars in cash to predatory Somali warlords to capture al Qaeda members.

This move provoked a prescient dissenting cable from a Kenya-based U.S. foreign service officer predicting that such payoffs would only help fuel the rise of extremism. As the author of the cable foresaw, the strategy backfired, provoking further distrust among Somalis that helped drive them toward Islamist leaders. In response, that foreign service officer was reassigned to Chad.

In 2004, the international community had recognized a transitional government in Somalia, one strongly backed by Ethiopia. But the fledgling government never established its authority, and by 2006, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a coalition of regional sharia courts with an affiliated militia, took control of Mogadishu, leaving the transitional government to flee to Somalia’s northwest. The ICU implemented sharia law and established some sense of stability in parts of Somalia for the first time in more than 15 years.

During Bush’s presidency, the memory of the Black Hawk Down debacle still shaped U.S. policy.

Neighboring Ethiopia, however, considered the ICU an unacceptable regime to have next door. After attempts at negotiations between the transitional government and the ICU failed, Ethiopia sent troops to oust the ICU. Bush, leaning on Ethiopia for direction in Somalia, offered training and intelligence to the Ethiopian military and backed its invasion with U.S. airstrikes. And in early 2007, also with U.S. support, the UN Security Council authorized a multinational AU force to protect the transitional government, facilitate humanitarian operations, and help stabilize Somalia.

Yet Ethiopia’s intervention ended up strengthening Islamist groups. The leadership of the ICU’s moderate civilian wing fled the country. But the ICU’s militia, al Shabab—meaning “the youth” in Arabic, referring to the group’s younger generation—stayed in Somalia, vowing to resist. Forging stronger ties to al Qaeda and appealing to Somalis aggrieved by the Ethiopian military’s abuses, al Shabab managed to take control of much of south-central Somalia.

Bush could have pushed for more dialogue instead of military intervention, emphasizing the need for a Somali-led solution. Instead, his administration remained narrowly focused on al Shabab’s links to al Qaeda and opted to deepen the U.S. military’s involvement in Somalia. In March 2008, the U.S. government designated al Shabab a foreign terrorist organization, which imposed sanctions on al Shabab members and threatened anyone who materially supported the group with criminal prosecution.

That summer, the United States carried out another airstrike on an al Shabab commander who was considered a member of al Qaeda. In the wake of the strike, U.S. officials debated whether such actions would hurt or embolden al Shabab. This debate was never resolved, setting the tone for a similar ambivalence within the Obama administration.

TRIALS AND TERROR

Initially, Obama sought to shift U.S. policy, promoting both military support for a new transitional government—now led by the ICU’s former leader—and development aid. Cautious not to overcommit, administration officials were at pains not to deem this a state-building project. U.S. diplomats had to work remotely from Nairobi, since there was no U.S. embassy in Mogadishu.

Al Shabab’s war continued to expand. In 2010, it carried out its first international attack in Uganda, a member of the AU’s peacekeeping mission, killing 74 people and wounding dozens more. In response to al Shabab’s growing threat, in 2011, the Obama administration increased its use of airstrikes; the AU peacekeepers cleared Mogadishu of insurgents and Kenyan forces ousted them from the southern Somali city of Kismayo. In 2012, these defeats led al Shabab to formally declare its allegiance to al Qaeda in search of support and legitimacy.

This development, however, may not have been as threatening as it seemed. Within both al Shabab and al Qaeda, there was no clear consensus on the nature of the two groups’ relationship. But the declaration by al Shabab’s leader buoyed U.S. officials who wanted the United States to take a more uncompromising line in Somalia, and the Obama administration began to drift toward a more militaristic approach. With U.S. support, the UN Security Council expanded the AU peacekeepers’ mandate. Hoping that a concentrated effort to build a special forces unit within the Somali army would help the fight against al Shabab, the Department of State contractor Bancroft and the U.S. military began training such a unit—the Danab—to clear territory of militants.

During Obama’s second term, U.S. airstrikes in Somalia increased dramatically, rising from 14 in the first term to 34 in the second. Most consequentially, in 2016, the Obama administration determined that al Shabab was an associated force of al Qaeda. This provided domestic legal justification for lethal attacks on any al Shabab member—and teed up yet more substantial U.S. military action in Somalia.

SLEEPWALKING INTO WAR

Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, largely delegated strike approval to the U.S. military. With fewer constraints, the U.S. military’s Africa Command vigorously pursued al Shabab. From 2017 to 2020, more airstrikes—219 total—were carried out in Somalia than during the combined 16 years of Bush’s and Obama’s administrations.

Although these operations dealt a blow to the group, the insurgency learned to adapt. It carried out dozens of attacks, bombing the entrance to Somalia’s biggest military airfield—which housed U.S. forces—in 2019 and launching a deadly assault on U.S. and Kenyan troops in Kenya in January 2020. Meanwhile, the AU began to draw down its peacekeeping forces after facing years of frustration from its biggest donor, the European Union, over its lack of progress against al Shabab.

Thanks to the work of U.S. State Department officials, many of whom served in Nairobi, some progress was made on the diplomatic front. The United States established a permanent diplomatic mission in Mogadishu, drew up a roadmap for relieving Somalia’s debt—in 2019, the country owed over $5 billion globally and $1 billion to the United States—and sent Mogadishu billions of dollars of humanitarian aid.

These actions, however, did not help the Somali government make much progress on security or state-building. The Somali president at the time, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as “Farmajo”, dedicated much of his time to consolidating his own power by expanding the central government at the expense of the member states in Somalia’s federal system. In December 2020—in a tersely worded, one-page document—Trump hastily directed U.S. forces to withdraw from Somalia. But the head of U.S. Africa Command, General Stephen Townsend, continued to send forces in and out of the country on a rotational basis, a practice he referred to in public as “commuting to work.”

WINNING THE BATTLE

And thus Biden inherited a sorry history of U.S. policy reversals and overreliance on bludgeoning counterterrorism when it comes to Somalia. Early in his presidency, his National Security Council, led not by East Africa experts but counterterrorism officials, oversaw a review of what to do about U.S. forces transiting in and out of the country. The reviewers offered Biden three options: maintain the status quo, send forces back to Somalia on a persistent basis, or withdraw completely.

Nobody backed the first option out of concern for the safety of U.S. forces. But Townsend supported the second option of reinforcing the U.S. military presence. He emphasized al Shabab’s threat not just to U.S. interests but even to the U.S. homeland.

Most U.S. officials do not believe al Shabab has the capability to directly threaten the United States. And yet no other officials vigorously challenged Townsend’s argument. They mostly saw a redeployment of forces as low cost and low risk, and Somalia policy was nobody’s hill to die on. And so, in May 2022, Biden decided to send several hundred U.S. troops back to Somalia. Months later, U.S. airstrikes helped push al Shabab out of some territory in central Somalia, where local clan militias had also tired of the high taxes al Shabab were imposing during a devastating drought.

But despite these military gains, Biden has far better options than the narrow approach he has chosen. In late summer of 2023, the Somali government restarted an offensive to capture more territory, backed by U.S. airstrikes. It is possible that this offensive will drive al Shabab out of more pockets of land in Somalia. But if the government cannot consolidate these gains, al Shabab will return. In fact, in recent weeks, al Shabab has retaken control of several towns it had lost over the past year.

DON’T LOSE THE WAR

To give Somalia better odds to break this vicious cycle, Washington should adopt a strategy that goes beyond containment. As a first step, the U.S. government should place a higher priority on supporting the Somali government’s stabilization efforts in the territory it has liberated from jihadis. U.S. officials should stress to their Somali counterparts that stabilization is as important as battling al Shabaab. Working through development partners such as the UN and local nongovernmental organizations, the United States should focus on provision of food and water and expand on quick-impact projects that meet local communities’ needs, such as repairing boreholes and facilitating medical services. The U.S. must ensure, however, that this time, funding intended for stabilization does not create additional opportunities for graft.

The U.S. Congress has a key role to play by appropriating more money for stabilization efforts in Somalia. However, given a Congress is so divided that it struggles to pass any legislation at all, increases in funding for Somalia are not likely to come in the foreseeable future. At a minimum, Congress must agree to ensure adequate oversight of U.S. policy to Somalia. This could include requiring the State Department to report annually on the progress of U.S. initiatives in the country and on Somalia’s progress toward making its government more financially transparent and accountable. In the short term, the Senate must act quickly to confirm the U.S. ambassador to Somalia that Biden nominated in March. The United States badly needs an ambassador to put weight behind its policies.

The United States alone cannot bring peace to Somalia, but many parties look to it for leadership.
The United States must also support reconciliation within Somali society. Deep divisions and distrust between officials in Mogadishu and regional leaders, as well as among clans and subclans, threaten to fragment the country. If these divisions are not addressed, al Shabab will use every opportunity to exploit them. U.S. officials should pressure Somali elites to work through their differences and come to comprehensive agreements on resource sharing, which in turn could help lead to fairer election processes—at both high and local levels—and potentially a permanent constitution.

The most difficult step for Washington will be to acknowledge the reality that, eventually, Mogadishu will have to negotiate with al Shabab to bring the war to an end. These negotiations will need to be a Somali-led effort. But Washington must make clear that it will not undermine them and that it will work to convince its allies not to interfere. If Washington does not lift the foreign terrorist organization designation it applied to al Shabab in 2008, it must at least provide assurances that individuals working on peace negotiations with al Shabab will not be prosecuted.

The first meetings of the quintet of influential Somali security partners began in November 2022 in London. At these meetings, however, officials failed to substantively discuss concrete policies to work toward peace. The United States has leverage in this group thanks to its long history in Somalia and the funding it commits there. It must use that leverage to focus the discussion on specific actions.

The United States alone cannot bring peace to Somalia. But it remains influential there, and many parties look to it for leadership. If Washington ever wants to wind down its military engagements in the country, it must design a more comprehensive policy that serves as a platform for peace. Otherwise, Somalia risks becoming yet another cautionary tale of the war on terror, like so many ill-fated campaigns of the post-9/11 era.

Foreign Affairs Magazine
By Sarah Harrison

Hadalsame Media

Pentagon chief on Africa tour focusing on defense issues

hadalsame — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 22:35:06 +0000

(Washington, DC) 25 Sept 2023 – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Djiboutian leaders and the president of Somalia in Djibouti on Sunday, marking his first trip to Africa as Secretary of Defense amid continued violence in the region. Later in the week, he will travel to Kenya and Angola.

Djibouti is home to the U.S. military’s major base on the continent, and Austin said Camp Lemonnier was “critical” to “countering violent extremism and supporting security throughout the region.”

He added that the U.S. is proud to partner with Djiboutian forces and African Union forces in support of neighboring Somalia, where al-Shabab militants are increasingly resistant amid ongoing military operations against the group.

Al-Shabab is the main branch of al-Qaida on the continent.

Somalia faced recent setbacks in its fight against al-Shabab after a deadly attack on the town of Cowsweyne on August 26. The incident left dozens of government soldiers dead and resulted in a hasty retreat from front lines and towns previously captured from the militant group.

The setback was one of the reasons Somalia cited in requesting a “technical pause” to the military drawdown of African Union forces from Somalia. The drawdown, which started last week, is scheduled to see 3,000 AU soldiers transferring their forward operating bases to Somali soldiers by the end of this month.

“Unfortunately, on August 26, 2023 we have suffered several significant setbacks after the attack on our forces in Cowsweyne area, Galgudud region and the subsequent retreats by the forces from several towns that were recently liberated,” read the letter written by National Security Adviser Hussein Sheikh-Ali. “This unforeseen turn of events has stretched our military forces thin, exposed our vulnerabilities in our front lines.”

A U.S. defense official described al-Shabab as a “difficult challenge” and “not one that is going to stop overnight.”

“It’s one that’s going to continue to require consistent, sustained cooperation between us and our east African partners on this, including Kenya,” the official said.

The U.S. military has been “advising and assisting” Somali forces for years in the fight against al-Shabab, including the training of Special Forces and carrying out airstrikes against the group.

On Sunday, a senior U.S. defense official said that AFRICOM did not conduct an airstrike on September 22, 2023. The al-Shabab group via telegram message claimed that an AFRICOM strike killed eight members of the same family, including six children, on the same day. The Somali government reported that a senior al-Shabab commander identified as Isaaq Abdullahi, who was responsible for the group’s operations in Bakool region, and seven “bodyguards,” were killed in a targeted airstrike.

Meanwhile, the U.S. defense official confirmed that a U.S. contractor and a partner force member were injured after al-Shabab militants fired on a base staffed by Kenyan defense forces on Friday. Al-Shabab claimed the attack injured four U.S. soldiers and nine Kenyan troops. The U.S. defense official said the al-Shabab claim was “overblown.”

Thousands of Kenyan troops are in Somalia serving as part of the African Union Transition Mission, ATMIS. Kenya has also faced repeated attacks from al-Shabab, including the high-profile attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi 10 years ago that killed 67 people.

Austin will travel to Kenya and Angola later in the week. According to a senior U.S. defense official, this will be the first time a U.S. defense secretary has ever traveled to Angola and the first time since 1976 that an American defense chief has visited Kenya.

VOA

Hadalsame Media

Arsenal Triumphs in the Community Shield: A Promising Start to the Season

hadalsame — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 19:21:06 +0000

In a display of determination and skill, Arsenal claimed victory in the Community Shield, kickstarting their season with a resounding win. The match, held at the iconic Wembley Stadium, showcased an exciting clash between the reigning Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners, setting the stage for what promises to be a thrilling football season.

The fixture, traditionally viewed as the curtain-raiser for the English football season, lived up to expectations, as both teams aimed to make a statement. Manchester City, reigning Premier League titleholders, came into the game with their usual formidable lineup, while Arsenal, buoyed by their FA Cup success, were eager to assert their dominance and build on the momentum from last season.

From the opening whistle, it was evident that the players were eager to showcase their abilities and claim the first silverware of the season. The match was marked by intense competitiveness, brilliant individual performances, and strategic team plays.

Both teams attacking force proved to be the defining factor in their victory. Spearheaded by their prolific forwards, they displayed fluidity and creativity in their attacking play. As the game progressed, they grew in confidence, pressuring Manchester City’s defense with relentless attacking waves.

The atmosphere of the compact stadia brought even more excitement, with both teams striving to gain control of the match. Arsenal’s midfield showcased excellent ball control and vision, expertly linking defense to attack and frustrating Manchester City’s attempts to regain possession.

The breakthrough came in the 2nd half though, as Man City’s star found the back of the net with a majestic finish from the outside with 13 minutes to go, sending their fans into a frenzy of celebration. The goal served to further ignite the already electric atmosphere at Wembley, with both sets of supporters rallying behind their respective teams.

But Gunners, renowned for their resilience, fought back with determination albeit with some luck, and equalized the dying minutes in the stoppages which made the game 1-1 with direct penalty shout-out where Gunners had triumphed 1 – 4.

The Community Shield triumph not only marked a confidence-boosting victory for Arsenal but also underlined the team’s progress under their manager’s guidance. The win serves as an indicator of their potential in the upcoming season, while also setting the bar high for future challenges.

As the players celebrated their success with their supporters, the focus now shifts to the eagerly anticipated Premier League campaign. Arsenal’s fans are hopeful that this victory is a precursor to a successful season, filled with exciting football and potential silverware which they narrowly missed last season.

While it is still early days in the season, the Community Shield win undoubtedly sets a positive tone for Arsenal, and they will be eager to build on this triumph and challenge for top honors in both domestic and international competitions. With the passion and dedication exhibited in this match, football enthusiasts can look forward to witnessing the Gunners’ continued resurgence on the grand stage.

By Mohamed Haji

Hadalsame Media

New Era of First Doughters: Is Somali Federal Government Really Fighting Corruption?

hadalsame — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:05:29 +0000

The cabinet meeting of the Federal Government of Somalia, chaired by Prime Minister Hamsa Abdi Barre, has concluded with the approval of crucial labor laws.

This legislative proposal was proposed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and endorsed significant changes in the labor conditions and rights of both government employees and private company workers, as stated in the government’s press release.

Additionally, the Cabinet also ratified the National Planning, Budgeting, and Economic Development Agency, consisting of six members. The agency’s main objective is to streamline the functioning of the institution and improve its economic planning capabilities.

The approved cabinet decisions were aimed at ensuring fair and equitable working conditions for employees within the institution and aligning the agency’s establishment with legal requirements.

Furthermore, among the appointees to the National Planning Committee was Ms. Xabiibo Sheekh, who is the daughter of the Speaker of the Parliament under Sheikh Adan Madoobe. Her appointment has sparked debates in political circles and some social media platforms, with some applauding it as a progressive step towards gender representation, while others raised concerns about her experience and suitability for the position in a country marred by corruption and nepotism.

In light of this, the cabinet meeting also addressed various issues concerning national security, taxation, sports, and religious affairs, as well as providing updates from the Ministries of Internal Security, Finance, and Religious Affairs.

It is evident that the government is actively working to tackle the country’s pressing challenges and create a conducive environment for its citizens’ well-being.

The decisions taken during this meeting don’t signify the commitment of the Federal Government of Somalia towards achieving better governance and ensuring inclusive representation across various sectors of the country.

Hadalsame Media

Nasra Abuukar: A Rising Star or Failed Athletic?

hadalsame — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 20:00:30 +0000

Nasra Abuukar is a 20-year-old, born in 2003 in the city of Mogadishu, where she completed her early education. Currently, she is enrolled at the University of Mogadishu, aiming to pursue higher education and contribute to Somalia’s educational landscape.

Nasra does not have a formal training from the past, but somehow the president of the Somali Athletics Association, Khadiija Aadan Daahir, was impressed by her exceptional athletic abilities and nominated her to represent the country in the 100-meter race, but Nasra is now in hot water.

The World University Games attract numerous students from various countries, and they are awarded based on merit. This inclusion of Nasra in the delegation to represent Somalia reflects the efforts of the Somali Athletics Association to carefully select and train athletes as Khadiija highlighted, “We enrolled her at the University of Mogadishu, but she competes on behalf of Somalia. She was selected for the World University Games.”

Despite Nasra’s lack of prior notable achievements, Khadiija emphasized that potential matters, saying, “Anyone who has the potential can be enrolled,” as she explained why Nasra was chosen for the event.

Nasra is a university student and not an experienced athlete. Yet, she has been preparing for two years to participate in the competition, following the guidance of Khadiija Aadan Daahir, the president of the Somali Athletics Association.

Hadalsame Media

Somalia Rejects Mediation in Maritime Dispute with Kenya, Affirms ICJ Ruling

hadalsame — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:27:19 +0000

(Hadalsame) 28 July 2023 – In a resolute stand, Somalia has declared its refusal to accept any mediation attempts concerning the longstanding maritime dispute with neighboring Kenya. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) had rendered a landmark decision on this contentious issue back in October 2021, yet the matter appears far from settled.

Somalia’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ali Mohamed Omar, unequivocally asserted that his country is not negotiating with Kenya to resolve the dispute, dismissing any notion of third-party intervention.

The dispute, revolving around a 100,000 sq km triangle in the Indian Ocean believed to hold significant oil and gas reserves, has been a source of contention between the two nations for years. The ICJ’s ruling re-demarcated the sea border, favoring Somalia’s sovereignty and acknowledging most of its claims. As per the Court’s decisions, both countries must redefine their boundaries accordingly.

Recent reports surfaced regarding Kenya’s President, William Ruto, seeking assistance from Djiboutian President Omar Ismael Guelleh in brokering a deal between Somalia and Kenya. However, the Somali minister swiftly shut down any speculations of further negotiations, stating that the court’s verdict had resolved the matter conclusively.

Despite the apparent offer of mediation, Somalia emphasized that Djibouti had not approached them on the issue. And even if such attempts were made in the future, the country asserted it would steadfastly decline any overtures. Meanwhile, neither Kenya nor Djibouti has publicly addressed the claims.

With the ICJ’s ruling regarded as final and binding, the maritime dispute between Somalia and Kenya remains a sensitive issue that could have significant implications for both countries’ territorial rights and natural resource claims. As the nations grapple with the need to abide by the court’s decision, the dispute continues to be a critical point of concern in the region.

Hadalsame Media

SOMALIA: ”We have no military or trade agreement with Russia”

hadalsame — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 21:33:25 +0000

(Hadalsame) 24 July 2023 – The government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has actively started to restore relations between Somalia and Russia. These two countries, which had both negative and positive histories together, have long had meaningful relations even if they ended badly back in 1978.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia, Abshir Huruse, went to Russia in May this year, and now there is a plan to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Many Somalis have raised questions about what makes relations between Somalia and Russia important at this time, and news has also been spread that the two countries have reached a military and security pact.

But the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia who responded to the Foreign Affairs Committee of Somalia during his trip to Moscow denied that there are any military agreements reached between Mogadishu and Moscow.

Russia is one of the countries that have the most debt in Somalia, while the federal government of Somalia is campaigning to forgive the debt of 5 billion dollars owed to the country.

Therefore, in order for the debt relief to be implemented, the government of Somalia must show special friendship to the debtor countries.

Somalia is also facing an arms embargo, while the world is waiting for the federal government of Somalia to defeat terrorism which is quite an uphill struggle since the Somali forces are ill-trained and ill-equipped.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been running a strong campaign related to an arms embargo, and Russia is one of the five countries with the most power in the Security Council, and they have a lot to do in Somalia’s campaign to lift the arms embargo.

On the other hand, we cannot forget the education grants that Russia always gives to Somali youth, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Somalia, Abshir Huruse, has the courage to clarify why Russia is important for Somalia today.

“Russia is a country that we had a great relationship with them in the past, although it has not been active in recent years, they give us scholarships every year. It is one of the countries with the most debt that we are negotiating with for debt forgiveness, and it is also a country that is important for us in terms of lifting the arms embargo,” said Minister Huruse.

He added, “Because of that since they invited us, we accepted the invitation.” But there is no agreement we signed with them wether military, trade, or anything else.”

Hadalsame Media

President of Somalia Joins Global Leaders in Rome to Tackle Regional Challenges

hadalsame — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 21:17:50 +0000

(Hadalsame) 24 July 2023 – The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and his delegation arrived in Rome, Italy.

President Hassan Sheikh is participating in international and regional meetings in Rome.

The biggest conference in which the president went to Italy has a theme called ‘Horn of Africa and Italy Forum’ which is opening in Rome.

Italy has invited the leaders of the countries of the Horn of Africa, including Somalia and Ethiopia, to the forum.

Therefore, the President of Somalia will also participate in a tripartite meeting between Italy, Somalia and Ethiopia.

As announced by the Presidency of Somalia aka Villa Somalia, the other meetings that the President will attend include the United Nations conference, which will discuss the fight against food shortages and the prevention of famine in poor countries like Somalia.

President Hassan Sheikh will share with the world leaders the food shortage that is being suffered in Somalia and the challenges it has caused.

The President will also present a report at the United Nations conference on the vast opportunities in Somalia’s agriculture so that the world can invest in Somalia.

Hadalsame Media