Somalia Under Farmaajo

Under President Farmaajo, Somalia is blighted by the double whammy of untethered corruption and recycled dictatorship cleverly packaged as nationalism. By all accounts, President Farmaajo, aided by his conflict entrepreneur Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire, and his reclusive, radical-cum political operative, Fahad Yassin, has run the country aground. For the first time since the Third Republic was revived in Arta in Djibouti almost 20 years ago, the country is in real danger of further disintegration or outright internecine war.

The President has deliberately transformed the security apparatus from protecting the state and its citizens—a primary responsibility enshrined in the Constitution—to a militia hell-bent on regime security at the expense of virtually everyone and everything, including civilians and national resources. That is why Al Shabaab has regained more territory over the past two years than over the eight years before that. 

In fact, Farmaajo has facilitated the infiltration of Al Shabaab in the security sector, particularly in NISA, as documented by the UN Monitoring Group. Effectively, former senior figures of Al Shabaab are now collaborating with the Farmaajo Administration in its regime security priority, at the expense of state security. 

Zakariye Ismail, a kinsman of Farmaajo and once the head of the feared Amniyat cell within the Shabaab, is now in charge of regime security for Farmaajo. The objective is to repackage dictatorship in the façade of nationalism by usurping more powers and disempowering oversight and accountability institutions.

Regardless of how many PR specialists Farmaajo hires to whitewash himself, his image is beyond repair. He will spend the next two years stealing natural resources and other sources at will. He understands very well that his chances of a second term are practically nonexistent.