Somalia Shoots Itself in the Foot

The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) posted on 11 January 2019 a commentary titled "Somalia Shoots Itself in the Foot" by Peter Fabricius, ISS consultant.

The Somali government declared Nicholas Haysom, a South African lawyer and seasoned diplomat, persona non grata on 1 January, thereby forcing UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to replace him as the UN Special Envoy to Somalia. Haysom criticized the Somali government's decision to arrest Muktar Robow, a candidate in the presidential elections last December in Somalia's South West State. Robow had earler defected from al-Shabaab where he once was the deputy leader.

Fabricius argues that this is not how to deal with al-Shabaab or to manage Somali federalism. What has been lost is a prime opportunity to demonstrate that former al-Shabaab members can be accepted into mainstream Somali society.