Aweys &Yusuf: Partners in Perpetual Violence

By Said Shiiq, PhD
Saturday, August 09, 2008

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed

Inbred in the notoriously unsparing culture of Mudug, where the pair spent their formative childhood, Aweys and Yusuf have long collaborated, though inadvertently, in aborting peace initiatives. Their most recent feud with their colleagues, Prime Minister Nur Adde and Chairman Sheikh Sharif, perfectly illustrate this tendency.

Striking similarities

Lest you forget, Aweys and Yusuf ascended to colonelship in Somalia’s Army, an institution they both rebelled against at an early stage, when it was still glorious. Aweys famously interrupted President Mohamed Siyad Barre to remind him of a prayer time. Yusuf defected, rather unceremoniously, for Ethiopia, an arch enemy of Somalia, 30 years ago. He was the first person to do so.

Out of step with the very institution that made them, Aweys and Yusuf took separate paths to pursue their zeal. Aweys, now loaded with a heavy dose of Wahhabi doctrine, drifted toward religious extremism until he found a solace with Al-Ittihad. He literally militarized this upstart Islamist organization and led countless deadly wars against warlords and against Ethiopia.

His path would cross again with his historic foe, Col. Yusuf, this time in Boosaaso. It was in 1992. Yusuf was hardened clan leader with SSDF, a rebel movement initially dominated by his clan’s elite, until he wrestled it from them to put it under his domain. Boiling with clan vendetta, Yusuf utilized SSDF to breed his clan zeal.

Religious and clan zeal clashed in Boosaaso. The latter was crushed and Aweys’ young men captured Yusuf. Aweys wanted him dead, but Yusuf was freed under still unclear circumstances.

Yusuf never forgave Aweys for that, and the latter never ceased to hunt his now lifetime nemesis.

Opportunistic moves

Both men helped the other’s enemy, at times for purely opportunistic tactics. For instance, Aweys helped Jubba Valley Alliance (Dooxada Jubba) to conquer Kismayo, then under the control of Gen. Morgan. Yusuf detested Morgan, but when Morgan went to Garowe to beg him for help, Yusuf provided him amply.

Then came Arta in 2000. Led by Abdulqasim Salad Hassan, who happens to be the same clan as Aweys, it never extended its overt powers beyond pockets in Mogadishu, largely because Yusuf (this time with Ethiopia) bolstered Mogadishu’s notorious warlords. Yusuf even took credit for dismantling the Arta regime and portraying it as a radical Islamist government in the eyes of the West and Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, Aweys was entirely in bed with Abdulqasim, who’s not particularly religious, but who undoubtedly felt that he could someday deploy Aweys against the more menacing Yusuf.

The final battle

Then came the fledgling TFG. Aweys went on a public relations offensive soon after Yusuf was selected as TFG’s president. He purported that Ethiopia was going to parachute Yusuf to Mogadishu, should the residents not rise up against him.

In 2005, Aweys opportunistically joined Muse Sudi Yalahow, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Osman Ato, Mohamed Dheere and myriad junior warlords for a spectacular lunch in Balcad, courtesy of Yalahow.

The occasion? To protest against TFG’s expected move to Jowhar, since Mogadishu was replete with these warlords. Why in the world would Aweys care where the TFG move to for he was never a member of it, like these warlords are? Even Aweys’ religious attire (white robe and red umamah) among the big-belly warlords was brazenly unfitting.

In joining these murderous warlords in a public event, Aweys was making a point in cacophony: that he was willing to go extremes to undermine Yusuf. But he inadvertently made a subtle point: that his religious zeal goes only insofar as his personal interests begin.

Yusuf is hardly better. In fact, he’s much worse. Consider this: he recently reinstated Mohamed Dheere, a man who publicly defaced him just a few years ago, simply to undermine the Djibouti peace process, and to embarrass Prime Minister Nur Adde.

Yusuf encircled himself with tribal clowns like Gen. Darwiish and murderous warlords like Abdi Qaybdiid. At his best, Yusuf mobilizes his clan at the expense of his presidency.

Since his selection as a president, Yusuf was in an overdrive to use clan vendetta to help massacre thousands of innocent civilians, and ultimately to reject any attempt to extend an olive branch to the legitimate opposition, as is done by Nur Adde.

Yusuf and Aweys’s latest feud with their onetime allies is indicative of their commitment to perpetuate violence and suffering among Somalis, purely for their pervert pleasures. Simply stated, Somalia is on hold for these two old men.

Somalis need not only to know about this, but to do something about it.