On Monday, Catriona Laing, UN Secretary-General’s recently-appointed Special Representative for Somalia, arrived in Mogadishu and was welcomed as the head of the state of another nation with a red carpet and military honors.
The @UN Secretary-General's recently-appointed Special Representative for #Somalia, @CatrionaLaing1, arrived in #Mogadishu today, stating: "I'm very pleased to be here and look forward to working with national and intl. partners in support of the #Somali people and government." pic.twitter.com/pJi3f4XBl1
— UNSOM (@UNSomalia) June 5, 2023
Upon arrival, Ms. Laing stated how very pleased she was “and looks forward to working with national and international partners in support of the Somali people and government.”
Thank-you very much to @DaudAweis and Somali Gov’t officials for such a fabulous warm welcome to #Mogadishu @UNSomalia https://t.co/tnit0nFHwX
— Catriona Laing (@CatrionaLaing1) June 5, 2023
However, Somalis are no longer in welcoming mood, while others including Abukar Arman, a renown political analyst and former Envoy to the US, in his June 2020, “A Shock Therapy for Somalia,” calls for a real UN Trusteeship, “since Somalia has been in a muted trusteeship in which U.K. still remains the country’s pen-holder or the official gate-keeper of all Somalia related issues at the UN Security Council.”
In Shock Therapy and call for Trusteeship, Abukar isn’t hopeful of an elected/selected Somali leader to solve Somalia’s political problems and emphasizes that “International predators—including next door neighbors—and their domestic partners know how easy it is to send clan-intoxicated, cash-addicted bunch of charlatans from both sides into a dramatic fool’s errand.”
In support for a shock therapy, he continues, “Somalia is a web of competing and counter-competing interests and predatory scams. To untangle and sift through all these mostly existential threats requires a moratorium period to administer the shock therapy that it so desperately needs to survive as a nation.”
With the arrival of the new UNSG Special Representative, once again, we reached out to Abukar Arman and asked him about the arrival of the new boss, this time not from the USA but from the UK.
Promptly, Abukar wrote back: “This only affirms that UK and US’ interest in Somalia have converged once again. Since establishment of UNSOM it was dominated by UK. The only exception being during Farmajo when it appeared Soma Oil and Gas will hog the spoils. Now that Soma Oil and Gas has morphed as Coastline, UK is secured the leadership position once again. Meanwhile UK is Somalia’s penholder in the Security Council and US is the penholder on Somalia’s maritime related issues. How about that for a conflict of interest!?”
And immediately, Abukar, pointing out the US as penholder on Somalia’s maritime issues tweeted the following:
Mr. Ambassador:
The US is Somalia's penholder on maritime issues in the Security Council. Has US proposed any UN resolution to end this maritime robbery?@SecBlinken @POTUS https://t.co/egxKFh6vem— 4DialogSk (@Abukar_Arman) June 6, 2023
With Somalia now in a major political quagmire once again, war on al-Shabaab backfiring, and allegations of corruption galore at Villa Somalia causing salaries of security forces to remain unpaid for months, is it time to revisit Shock Therapy for Somalia and a REAL UN TRUSTEESHIP?
Daljir Media | SOMALIA
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