Despite growing pressure on Somalia’s government to provide explanation about Somali soldiers sent to fight in neighboring Ethiopia’s deadly Tigray conflict, the president of Somalia Abdilahi Mohamed Farmajo continues to deny the allegations though information reveals necessary facts.
Both the body bags and eyewitness accounts, however, tell a different story. The slaughter in Tigray is immense. At the same time, the Farmaajo government has been unable to provide insight on the whereabouts of Somali recruits transferred overseas.
On Jan. 20, the parents of Somali soldiers began gathering in Mogadishu’s streets. Similar protests in other towns and cities erupted across the country.
The spark was ignited by Abdisalan Yusuf Guled, the former deputy head of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency, on Jan. 18 when he acknowledged that 370 Somali soldiers had died fighting in the Ethiopian province of Tigray.
On the other hand, The head of the Somali parliament’s foreign affairs committee asked Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmaajo” to investigate the issue and to clarify the whereabouts of Somali troops sent to Eritrea for training.
The pressure has also disconcerted Farmajo who is vying for a second term in elections presumably this February due to what he perceives to be external support.
In addition to Turkey and the US, some regional powers are also reported to be supportive of a continued Farmajo administration in Somalia even to the detriment of democracy.
And just as Abiy and Isaias of Ethiopia and Eritrea seek to use Farmajo as their foil to control Somalia, so too has U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto.
The United States and the broader international community have spent billions of dollars in order to pull Somalia back from the brink.
“For too long, the State Department has given Farmajo a free pass. That should end”, argues Michael Rubin as he urges the Biden Administration to Sanction Somalia’s President for Human Trafficking.
The fact that Farmaajo would in effect traffic young Somalis for his own profit, however, crosses the line between poor leadership and human trafficking.
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