Reliable sources at the Foreign Ministry are telling Daljir that a new turf battle is being waged at Somalia’s Foreign Ministry. While President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has already divvied up the Ministry as a resource center and transferred control of East Africa Community (EAC) to his right hand man Ali Mohamed Omar (Ali Balcad), and Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi for the rest.
However, Minister Ali Balcad wasn’t pleased about how revenue sources were divvied up and he refused to let go of the Visa Section for civil servants. This section is very profitable and is known for facilitating foreign visas.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mr. Ahmed M. Fiqi wasn’t pleased either with Ali Balcad extending his tentacles to the main revenue sources at the Ministry. As such, on 21 July he sent an official email while on his way to Doha, Qatar, for the Diaspora Conference.
The letter, addressed to all officials and staff of the ministry, informed them that effective as of 22 July 2024, all visa requests, civil service passports, and diplomatic passport requests will be issued from his office. He added that neither Deputy Minister Isaak Mohamud Mursal, State Minister Ali Mohamed Omar (Balcad), permanent Secretary Hamza Adam Haadow, nor any other department heads will any longer have the authority to issue these documents.
You may ask, why this newest turf war between Fiqi and Ali Balcad?
The answer is very simple, and it is about resources at the Ministry that each wants to pocket on their own. It is about a lucrative scheme to enrich themselves by taking money from regular folks who are neither diplomats nor civil servants. These regular folks, presenting themselves as diplomats or civil servants, will be issued fake passports for the right to obtain visas for the EU, UK, Canada, and the U.S., where then they will apply for political asylum. Facilitation price ranges from $10,000 to $25,000, depending on the country one wishes to travel to.
The scheme was previously ran as a team by Deputy Minister Isaak Mursal, State Minister Ali Balcad, and Permanent Secretary Hamza Haadow. It was a highly profitable scheme. With Minister Fiqi losing the EAC market to Ali Balcad, it was time to clean house, and the minister decided to cut off Ali Balcad and his team of this lucrative revenue source.
With this latest new email from Minister Fiqi already igniting a firestorm at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expect a new memo from Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre once again divvying the revenue sources at the Ministry.
With the Turkish government already making it clear that they will no longer issue visas on civil servant passports, will the US, UK, EU, Canada, and other countries follow suit to finally extinguish the turf war at the Foreign Ministry for good? Time will tell.
Contributed to by Daljir staff in Mogadishu and Garoowe.
COMMENTS