The NY Times exposed Farmaajo's financial crimes, his political crimes and his immigration fraud. This man is a fugitive, hiding from America. He can't even spin this or defend his actions so he refused to even comment.
Mr. Mohamed did not respond to a request for an interview or to questions sent to his aides.
Mr. Mohamed did not respond to a request for an interview or to questions sent to his aides.
The Bureaucrat From Buffalo Who Pushed Somalia to the Brink (Published 2021)
His bid to stay in office an extra two years, without elections, has led to gunfights in the capital and fears that Somalia is backsliding into a disastrous conflict.
www.nytimes.com
- Mr. Mohamed played divisive clan politics and began to feud openly with the country’s regional leaders, undermining the power-sharing system that underpins Somali stability.
- Mr. Mohamed failed to hold elections when his four-year term ended in February, then moved to extend his rule by two years — a step many Somalis viewed as a naked power grab.
- A furious political dispute turned violent on Sunday when a series of gunfights broke out between rival military factions in the capital, Mogadishu, evoking fears that Somalia, after years of modest yet gradual progress, could descend into the kind of clan-based bloodshed that ripped it apart in the 1990s.
- Now Mr. Mohamed’s democratic credentials lie in tatters and he is in an open confrontation with his former ally, the United States, where he still has a family home.
- Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has publicly threatened to sanction Mr. Mohamed and other Somali officials, and this week American officials reiterated calls for Somalia to hold elections immediately.
- “His entire brain power is focused on his ascendancy, and how he can dominate the scene,” said Abdirashid Hashi, a former cabinet minister under Mr. Mohamed. “His brinkmanship allowed him to get away with a lot. But now all those tactical moves have culminated in the fiasco we are in.”
- Yet Mr. Mohamed also relies heavily on other regional powers — continuing to receive funding from Qatar and allying with the autocratic president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, whose military has trained thousands of Somali troops, Western and Somali officials say.
- “It comes as cash and it’s uncounted,” Abdirizak Mohamed, a former interior minister and now opposition lawmaker, said of the Qatari funds. “It’s an open secret.”
- Now Mr. Mohamed is confined to Villa Somalia, the presidential compound in central Mogadishu, as military units loyal to his most powerful opponents — a coalition of presidential candidates and the leaders of two of Somalia’s five regional states — camp on a major junction a few hundred yards away.
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