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10 questions Somalia’s prime minister should answer in Washington.
Washington Examiner
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire begins a visit to Washington on Monday. Meetings are tentatively scheduled at the World Bank and either at or with senior officials from the State Department, Treasury Department, and the United States' intelligence community. Khaire, who has just begun his third year as prime minister and who was previously a refugee in Norway, was appointed by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (“Farmajo”) who himself was selected by a parliament chosen by hand-picked Somali elders in a process marked by fraud and vote-buying.
Khaire’s visit comes at a crucial time for Somalia. In 1991, after the fall of dictator Siad Barre, Somalia collapsed. Rival clans and warlords fought over the institutions of state, hijacking or looting them in order to benefit their own narrow interests or trade patronage for power. As the Western media broadcast photos of starving Somali children, then-President George H.W. Bush ordered Marines into Somalia to distribute aid and to try to avert famine. The aid, however, simply exacerbated conflict as rival militias fought over its distribution to ensure their followers received support and their competitors starved. After the Black Hawk Down episode, President Bill Clinton, who inherited the mission, ordered U.S. forces home the following year. The rest of the U.N. peacekeeping force left soon after, and Somalia again descended into chaos.
For many American policymakers, history is an inconvenience to diplomatic ambitions and plans. But in Somalia, the precedent of government formation, military action, and aid policy is crucial to understand Somalia’s tipping point.
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After the U.S. and U.N. withdrawal, warlords rose and fell. In August 2000, clan leaders met in Djibouti and electedAbdiqasim Salad as Somalia’s first president in a decade. Somalia’s warlords did not accept Salad’s authority, however, nor that of the Transitional National Government. Somalia might have had a president in theory, but it did not have one in reality, at least outside of a handful of neighborhoods in Mogadishu. In 2006, the Islamic Court Union took Mogadishu. While some Somalis hoped that the group might restore security, much as the Taliban briefly stabilized Afghanistan albeit under a brutal social order, an Ethiopian intervention ended Islamic Court Union rule. Chaos returned as Ethiopian and African Union forces in support of the Somali government battled Islamist militias seeking to seize the capital. In Puntland, meanwhile, young men, often acting under the patronage of local politicians, began engaging in piracy.
In 2009, al Shabab, an Islamist group which absorbed previous members of the Islamic Court Union and subsequently protected al Qaeda members, seized the southern port of Kismayo and launched a siege of Mogadishi. Kenyan forces, meanwhile, entered Somalia to counter al Shabab after the group staged several attacks in Kenya. Al Shabaab began to falter, even as Somalia’s theoretical government controlled little outside the blast walls of Mogadishu’s international airport. In August 2012, Somalia elected a new parliament which operated from the airport; few if any parliamentarians actually traveled to the regions they theoretically represented, even as they drew salaries which, by Somali (and even international) standards were wildly inflated.
While under African Union Mission to Somalia protection, the Somali government had established a loose foothold in Mogadishu and, in theory, elsewhere in the country, as the AMISOM mandate expires, it is not certain the government over which Farmajo and Khaire preside can maintain its grip on power. Already, as AMISOM has withdrawn from towns and villages near Mogaidshu this year, al Shabab has resumed its control — sometimes just miles from the capital. Meanwhile, the Somali security forces seem unable to prevent attackseven in the heart of the capital.
Accordingly, here are some questions any responsible official in the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, U.S. Congress, White House, and State Department should demand Khaire answer satisfactorily if he wants aid to continue:
1. Why should Somalia receive any more international assistance?
The U.S. has increased its contribution to Somalia to more than $900 million, after several years of giving at least $500 million. Of course, Somalia receives even more from the international community. Is there any metric by which Somalia has improved in proportion to money received? Security? Territorial control? Economy? Education?
2. Why are salaries in Mogadishu so high?
One of the ironies of Somalia is that salaries of its bureaucracy are exponentially higher, but services and efficiency so much lower than those of Somaliland, the breakaway northern region of Somalia which operates independently. If Somaliland authorities can do a better job with less, why can’t Somalia?
3. What’s the plan to address corruption?
The academic literature is clear: Corruption and looting of resources was not only primarily responsible for Somalia’s collapse, but also for transforming drought into devastating famine. And yet, Somalia has been at the bottom of Transparency International’s corruptions perceptions index for more than a decade. Why should the U.S. or international organizations provide money to a country consistently more corrupt than Venezuela, Afghanistan, or North Korea? What has your government done in practice to reduce corruption? How many ministers or aides have you fired due to corruption?
Washington Examiner
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire begins a visit to Washington on Monday. Meetings are tentatively scheduled at the World Bank and either at or with senior officials from the State Department, Treasury Department, and the United States' intelligence community. Khaire, who has just begun his third year as prime minister and who was previously a refugee in Norway, was appointed by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (“Farmajo”) who himself was selected by a parliament chosen by hand-picked Somali elders in a process marked by fraud and vote-buying.
Khaire’s visit comes at a crucial time for Somalia. In 1991, after the fall of dictator Siad Barre, Somalia collapsed. Rival clans and warlords fought over the institutions of state, hijacking or looting them in order to benefit their own narrow interests or trade patronage for power. As the Western media broadcast photos of starving Somali children, then-President George H.W. Bush ordered Marines into Somalia to distribute aid and to try to avert famine. The aid, however, simply exacerbated conflict as rival militias fought over its distribution to ensure their followers received support and their competitors starved. After the Black Hawk Down episode, President Bill Clinton, who inherited the mission, ordered U.S. forces home the following year. The rest of the U.N. peacekeeping force left soon after, and Somalia again descended into chaos.
For many American policymakers, history is an inconvenience to diplomatic ambitions and plans. But in Somalia, the precedent of government formation, military action, and aid policy is crucial to understand Somalia’s tipping point.
Teachers’ unions step up fight against charter schools
Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads
After the U.S. and U.N. withdrawal, warlords rose and fell. In August 2000, clan leaders met in Djibouti and electedAbdiqasim Salad as Somalia’s first president in a decade. Somalia’s warlords did not accept Salad’s authority, however, nor that of the Transitional National Government. Somalia might have had a president in theory, but it did not have one in reality, at least outside of a handful of neighborhoods in Mogadishu. In 2006, the Islamic Court Union took Mogadishu. While some Somalis hoped that the group might restore security, much as the Taliban briefly stabilized Afghanistan albeit under a brutal social order, an Ethiopian intervention ended Islamic Court Union rule. Chaos returned as Ethiopian and African Union forces in support of the Somali government battled Islamist militias seeking to seize the capital. In Puntland, meanwhile, young men, often acting under the patronage of local politicians, began engaging in piracy.
In 2009, al Shabab, an Islamist group which absorbed previous members of the Islamic Court Union and subsequently protected al Qaeda members, seized the southern port of Kismayo and launched a siege of Mogadishi. Kenyan forces, meanwhile, entered Somalia to counter al Shabab after the group staged several attacks in Kenya. Al Shabaab began to falter, even as Somalia’s theoretical government controlled little outside the blast walls of Mogadishu’s international airport. In August 2012, Somalia elected a new parliament which operated from the airport; few if any parliamentarians actually traveled to the regions they theoretically represented, even as they drew salaries which, by Somali (and even international) standards were wildly inflated.
While under African Union Mission to Somalia protection, the Somali government had established a loose foothold in Mogadishu and, in theory, elsewhere in the country, as the AMISOM mandate expires, it is not certain the government over which Farmajo and Khaire preside can maintain its grip on power. Already, as AMISOM has withdrawn from towns and villages near Mogaidshu this year, al Shabab has resumed its control — sometimes just miles from the capital. Meanwhile, the Somali security forces seem unable to prevent attackseven in the heart of the capital.
Accordingly, here are some questions any responsible official in the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, U.S. Congress, White House, and State Department should demand Khaire answer satisfactorily if he wants aid to continue:
1. Why should Somalia receive any more international assistance?
The U.S. has increased its contribution to Somalia to more than $900 million, after several years of giving at least $500 million. Of course, Somalia receives even more from the international community. Is there any metric by which Somalia has improved in proportion to money received? Security? Territorial control? Economy? Education?
2. Why are salaries in Mogadishu so high?
One of the ironies of Somalia is that salaries of its bureaucracy are exponentially higher, but services and efficiency so much lower than those of Somaliland, the breakaway northern region of Somalia which operates independently. If Somaliland authorities can do a better job with less, why can’t Somalia?
3. What’s the plan to address corruption?
The academic literature is clear: Corruption and looting of resources was not only primarily responsible for Somalia’s collapse, but also for transforming drought into devastating famine. And yet, Somalia has been at the bottom of Transparency International’s corruptions perceptions index for more than a decade. Why should the U.S. or international organizations provide money to a country consistently more corrupt than Venezuela, Afghanistan, or North Korea? What has your government done in practice to reduce corruption? How many ministers or aides have you fired due to corruption?
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our tax dollars should go to better causes
if they want the Somali American vote they better pay up
