Tribal Conflict Sweeps Somalia

Sour relations between Mogadishu and some of its federal states could determine the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections in Somalia which will be held with little progress on constitutional reform.

Somalia regional leaders had suspended their co-operation with Mogadishu, accusing President Farmaajo of favoring his clan Darood over the Hawiye clan, failing to defeat Al Shabaab and going against the 2012 constitution in order to consolidate power.

The former Somalia spy agency chief Abdullahi Mohamed Ali revealed in a TV interview that at one point the Chief of Staff of Villa Somalia Fahad Yasin had opened up to him about a conspiracy by Farmaajo to clamp on politicians perceived to be critics of his administration.

"Fahad confided to me in person that in order for Farmaajo to hold on to power he had to clip the political and financial powers of Mogadishu clans" he said.

He cited the December 2017 raid on Wadajir Party leader Abdishakur Abdirahman's residence and recent flight ban imposed on former President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as one of the plans by the head of state to silence politically powerful Mogadishu clans.

"Farmaajo is a dictator and am afraid he will take this country back to destruction as Siad Barre did. We have been rebuilding this country in the last twenty years but unfortunately Farmaajo will is bent towards shattering our dreams of a peaceful Somalia" Abdullahi said.

Farmaajo had adopted former President Siad Barre tactics of dealing with opposition from perceived rival clans. He, like Siad Barre, has been targeting and undermining politicians from Mogadishu and Puntland as some form of a revenge.