Garbaharey (Commentary ) — Abdullahi SheikH Ismael ‘Fartaag’, the Security Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, returned to Mogadishu from Garbaharey, the administrative capital of Gedo. While in Gedo, he failed to mobilise the people of Garbaharey against the Jubaland Administration.
“You forced us to accept the Jubaland Administration when many of us were against it. Now, we are not ready to oppose the Jubaland Administration, of which we are a part and parcel,” a woman told Fartaag in a leaked video of the meeting.
Between 2012 and 2013, Fartaag opposed the interference of the Federal Government of Somalia, which was keen on undermining the Jubaland Administration. Fartaag seems oblivious to the fate of Barre Hirale, whom the Federal Government of Somalia funded to destabilise Kismayo but later isolated after a deal was struck between Kismayo and Mogadishu.
Abdi Farah Shirdoon, a former Prime Minister, and Abdiwahid Gonjeh, a Senator, expressed objections to the Federal Government of Somalia’s efforts to destabilise Jubaland after Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam rejected a term extension for federal institutions and left the National Consultative Council summit in Mogadishu last year.
Fartaag and Hamza Abdi Barre, the Prime Minister, were behind the ill-fated deployment of Somali troops to Raaskambooni. In Mogadishu, Fartaag stated that the Baardheere bridge would be built by the government. The politicisation of security forces is now compounded by the politicisation of development aid donated to Somalia by donor countries. Aid sent through the Federal Government of Somalia will only be allocated to regions that allow their institutions to be manipulated by Villa Somalia. Any administration that refuses to align its policies with term extension goals and illegal amendments to the provisional constitution will be marginalised. A group of Somali MPs and Senators accused the Federal Government of Somalia of aiming to destabilise the Somalia-Kenya border. In 2014, when President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed a bilateral agreement to deploy Ethiopian troops, he insisted on keeping those forces in Gedo to avoid alienating his constituents, who are still reeling from the 2006-2009 Ethiopian intervention in Somalia.
Having failed to foment uprisings against Ethiopian forces in Gedo, Villa Somalia resorted to using “guns for hire” policies, sending Fartaag and other politicians to break up the Jubaland State of Somalia on its behalf. “President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the current occupant of Villa Somalia, is paving the way for conflict in southern parts of Somalia,” an influential elder from Gedo alleged.
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