President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia, a man with many profound contradictions and lacking coherent policy, is aiming to shut down dissenting voices or constructive criticisms of his administration. The effort is at times openly discussed and other times disguised as part of fighting terrorism, but the real targets are citizens and thought leaders who disagree with the president and his cohorts’ tactics and approach to Somalia’s seemingly intractable problems.
The initial binary rhetoric of “either you’re with us or with the terrorist” to whip up support failed as the public didn’t take the bait. A new conspiracy is conjured now.
The new conspiracy is to curtail dissenting speech by issuing ambiguous decrees and threats through traditional and social media. Any speech or dissenting expressions aimed at president Mohamud’s and his political allies’ ill-advised approach to the country’s problems is deemed as aiding and abetting Al-Shabaab.
The reader will recall Al-Shabaab was able to carry out a pair of massive car bombs and take over the Hayad hotel in Mogadishu on August 19, 2022. This criminal act reportedly claimed more than a dozen lives and wounded over 120 people. The perpetrators escaped to safety after inflicting such heavy casualties on civilians including many important and prominent figures and the destruction of the hotel, which was a very prominent infrastructural landmark in the city and a preferred hangout for many Somali intellectuals and important political figures.
It is reported the infamous Mahad Mohamed Salad, president Mohamud’s head of the National Intelligent and Security Agency (NISA), was directing the purported assault by the security forces for the rescue of the hostages from the Al-Shabaab terrorist in a hotel owned by his brother several blocks away. It is a known fact that the rescue efforts were seriously botched as Mr. Salad inexplicably replaced Haramcad urban rescue-trained force with regular infantry units. There is circulating video footage showing Mr. Salad forecasting the explosion moments Al-Shabaab remotely detonated a bomb at the hotel’s lobby. According to many sources including former NISA director, Mr. Fahad Yaasin, Mr. Salad is a bonafede member of Al-Shabaab leadership. This well-sourced suspicion along with the fact that the president hastily nominated Mr. Salad to be the head of arguably the most important security agent in the country within days of winning the famously ill-fated presidential election raises serious questions about NOT ONLY the president’s judgment but also his loyalty and sincerity fighting Al-Shabaab.
The former head of NISA, Mr. Yaasin, claimed in an interview he warned the president about Mr. Salad sharing with him top secret files collected on Mr. Salad about his clandestine activities on behalf of Al-Shabaab several days before he nominated him to the critical post he now holds. This was to no avail as Mr. Salad is nominated. No vetting. No consultations with parliament or rank and file of the NISA. This in addition to many other actions taken by the president raises serious questions about the president’s judgment and loyalty to the country.
There was not even a post-event discussion of the catastrophic terrorist attack let alone an investigation to determine critical failures in order to learn from what happened and prevent it from happening again. Nor was there a serious review of the inadequate or seriously flawed response to the attack. This was the not first such attack in Mogadishu, but typically the attacks used to be dealt with swiftly and competently during the previous administration. No one was fired or sanctioned for allowing such a tragedy to occur.
A legitimately democratic government with a good sense of responsibility, public mandate, and qualified leaders with the basic prerequisite standard would have collapsed under the circumstance. Instead, the president and his cohorts are doubling down and politically targeting the opponents of their ill-advised policies and abject failures. For instance, the country is now put through clan-based intense fighting in order to ostensibly “DEFEAT Al-Shabaab.” Somalia’s well-trained army and security forces that although insufficient in number had nonetheless proven their professionalism and efficiency in dealing with Al-Shabaab decisively on many occasions are pushed aside by the administration. President Mohamud would like us to believe that “it is better and more efficient” to arm a clan in order to defeat Al-Shabaab than empowering Somalia’s security forces. This is the demonstrably oxymoronic monstrosity that all decent Somalis with common sense should point out and make plain to the Somali public as nothing more than fraudulent activity. While the president is advocating defeating Al-Shabaab by arming Somali clans who have historically been a victim of Al-Shabaab’s violence and blackmail, he has been undercutting the armed forces by demoting their leadership or not giving national forces the attention and the support, they deserve. Based on the president’s behaviour one thing is clear: Either the president is not up to the task, or he has a serious ulterior motive that is not intended to improve the difficult situation Somalia is currently in.
The administration is now propagating through their “Ku Yaac” social media groups the claim that the administration is embarking on a social media war on Al-Shabaab. Again, the claim is fantastic and really laughable; the administration’s policies and actions (or lack thereof) have thus far been an utter failure. President’s many ill-advised international visits including his infamous agreement with Mr. Sisi of Egypt, his reversal of the previous administration’s good achievements including the sun-setting the European theft of Somalia’s sea treasures under the euphemism of “Somalia Sea Security”, reversing AMIS troops deadline to exit the country, the reimportation of Khat from Kenya, which reportedly the president and few of his close partners are financially benefiting to the detriment of Somalia socio-economically, allowing UAE to rear its ugly head again in the internal affairs of Somalia, the tacit approval Al-Shabaab to wage a cross border attack on Ethiopia (this is self-evident as president thus far chose to be silent about this major offense which clearly soured the two countries relationship and gave Ethiopia the excuse to send its troops and advisors to regional leaders in Somalia), etc.
After failing to govern, Mohamud wants to shut down dissenting speech on traditional and social media. This is another laughable from Mohamud’s government.
Governments with far more sophisticated tools and technologies have tried to control the dark web but failed. It is farcical to think the government of Mr. Mohamud leads, which is rife with deep corruption, utter incompetence, and lack of resources is going to crack the code, especially against Al-Shabaab, a very adept, experienced, and with massive foreign support. However, the president’s media campaign to silence the opponents of his policies is not without a effects. The government’s actions are already negatively impacting outlets and social media accounts with dissenting views.
According to Mr. Jamal Abdulahi, a prominent writer about Somalia’s politics and an electrical engineer with expertise in digital computing, the administration’s current online war is a joke. For instance, “a group that uses social media for nefarious purposes frequently changes Internet Services Provider (ISP), domain host, and uses Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide Internet Protocol (IP) address. When the current version of a site is shut down, a new version with a different ISP, host, refreshed VPN and IP emerges thereby allowing the continuing to operate. In fact, often digital platforms provide dynamic IP addresses. The platform hosting website has a built-in mechanism to randomly change IP addresses which means tracking is next to impossible. Therefore, administration attacks are dead on arrival and ineffective on such groups.”
Mr. Jamaal Abdulahi continues “Notifying prominent ISP providers does nothing to curtail the problem. There are sky dishes and other commercially available mobile venues with global connections via satellites that make a coaxial cable or Radio Frequency (RF) tower optional.”
However, Mr. Jamal Abdulahi asserts that Mohamud will have an impact on legitimate traditional and social media users with dissenting voices. “Harassment, intimidation, and spyware are the most common methods used for shutting down accounts and outlets that aren’t kowtowing to the administration’s position. Some of the targeted accounts have a large following that took years to build. Shutting them down and having them start from scratch again is a huge setback for the individuals and organizations involved and for the freedom of expression and our ability to hold this administration accountable.”
Some notables have been in president Mohamud’s and his loyalists’ crosshairs already. One such target is Mr. Abukar Arman. Mr. Arman is a former diplomat and well-versed able writer about Somalia’s politics and the Horn of Africa. Mr. Arman had recently ignited a vigorous debate about the administration’s ill-fated policy to arm clans in order to ostensibly fight Al-Shabaab when he pointed out the obvious, i.e., the administration’s policy to wage a clan-based war on Al-Shabaab is seriously flawed and is bound to fail. Mr. Arman simply contends that a variety of this type of effort had been tried before in the form of AL-Sunna Wal-Jama’a in central Somalia. With foreign support, this group morphed to a terrorist organization causing significant deaths and the destruction of properties in Gal-Mudud. Arming clans is going to have far-reaching consequences including reigniting other intractable civil conflicts and mayhem. Instead of acknowledging the failure of their rudimentary policy from start, the administration is hell-bent on silencing the opponents such as Mr. Abukar Arman. President Mohamud’s Twitter loyalists quickly accused Abukar of being “a terrorist sympathizer.” There have also been concerted efforts to falsely report Mr. Arman twitter handler to shut him down.
Mr. Jamal Abdulahi has also received plenty of threats and unfounded accusations for writing critically of Mr. Mohamud’s leadership.
It is in this background that Mohamud introduces new decrees to curtail unflattering speech and sends his “Ku Yaac” to social media spaces for intimidation and blackmails. This will not work as we will not be intimidated or silenced.
It is instructive at this junction to point out the obvious irony; the administration is pointing fingers accusing Mr. Arman as a terrorist sympathizer when Mr. Mahad Salad is the head of NISA, and the founder of Al-Shabaab, Mr. Mukhtar Roboow is a prominent minister in President Mohamud’s administration. We should all expose this for what it is; naked aggression against our freedom of expression and ability to hold this administration accountable.
According to Mr. Jamaal Abdulahi, “The notion of using the war on terror as a disguise to shut down legitimate dissent is not new. But it is more common with despots and unpopular authoritarian leaders such as Mr. Mohamud. Nevertheless, precedents are found in advanced democracies including the United States as well. Recently, Mr. Jamal Abdulahi wrote about the similarities between the rhetoric of George W Bush and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
George W. Bush repeatedly asserted “Either You’re with Us or With the Terrorist” after the September 11th attacks. Mr. Mohamud seems to be copying the former US president when he recently gave a similar talk at the funeral for popular police General Farhaan Mohamed Aden (Qaroole) who was killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) under suspicious circumstances.
The latest media decrees the president issued specifically instruct the Minister of Information to implement binary choice for traditional and social media. It is deliberately intended to silence unfavorable criticism. It will have little or no impact on the stated target. History is on the side of the underdog on this. Silencing legitimate dissenting voices or expressions by despots and authoritarian figures almost always never works and are bound to backfire. The culprits are almost always exposed by the deed and become isolated and weaker. Mohamud is no exception. The patriotic and independent-minded dissenting voices for Somalia CAN NOT be silenced and will prevail.
Hussein Egal, MD
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