by Yassin Mahi Mallin
Sunday, December 09, 2018
When we couldn’t take care of ourselves, we turned our heads towards our AU brothers to whom we are a signatory for help.
Deployed to Mogadishu in March 2007, it was not until late May 2013 that the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) adopted a mission-wide protection-of-civilians strategy.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was mandated by the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council on 19 January 2007 and later endorsed by the UN Security Council. It was given a wide variety of tasks, including:
(i) protecting senior Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) officials and others engaged in the political reconciliation process;
(ii) conducting an enforcement campaign against al-Shabaab and other actors determined to destroy the TFG;
(iii) supporting the Somali security forces;
(iv) implementing a range of civil-military assistance projects (including delivery of water and medical services to the local population);
(v) engaging in policing tasks; and
(vi) Providing training and logistical support to TFG security forces.
AMISOM still faces some formidable military and political challenges. One of these is the challenge of how the mission should protect Somali civilians.
For more than a decade in the field, AMISOM has had a contradictory relationship with the Somali population, the report of misunderstanding and the judgmental attitude of our people has dragged peace behind us every time it gets closer.
We the Somalis must come to the sense of appreciation for the effort our African brothers have given us, they made us proud and even though we still have a long way, Somalis and Somalia is on the path to standing tall again in the African Union and United Nations.
Our passport to which was like a piece of paper for 25 years has grown and growing to where it belongs, into the archives of the world best.
Back to our reality,
In Africa, several countries have undergone political, economic and social instability and in such a case, the neighboring countries and the UN have always been on the forefront to lift the hand of the unstable state to bring it back to the reality.
The problem we face in Somalia is more of psychological than economic or political, the society has turned to a more of “a man eat a man society” where the best interpreters of their principles use the power of the gun to permanently silence those with different opinion.
We believe that there is amicable ways of solving our problems and for us to be right again, we must all apologize and accept to be capital offenders, forgive each other and move on with openness and trust.
We must appreciate the efforts and the sacrifices that our Africa partners are making to keep us safe and stable. In most of the cases, our people have given contradictory opinion over the affairs of the AMISOM including what they earn and the interest they serve. Others have argued that they should withdraw and let us the Somalis alone to solve our own problems. Some worthy debaters have also argued that AMISOM are up to looting our resources, others have also argued that AMISOM is not doing enough in the war against terror.
All these are right and in order but:
Why the hurry? Are we able to take care of ourselves yet? Maybe yes but in all the countries that have undergone what we have been through, how many years did the peace enforcers spend there? Let’s say Liberia, for how long were the peace enforcers in Liberia? We should learn to learn by comparison.
We recommend that AMISOM should stay in Somalia longer than 2022 and a good exit plan should be made, our own Troops should be trained, equipped and deployed in every part of the country, the AMISOM should leave, but when we have achieved our target of peace and stability.
AMISOM looting our resources narrative,
We believe that Somalia is a very rich country full of livestock and land for Agriculture, Somalia is able to feed Somalia forever, our sea is one great resource when we can put it in amicable use, we believe that fishermen should be empowered and the authorities should resource for a common and potential market for our fishermen.
We believe that our said minerals can only be helpful to us if they are extracted and put to use to lift the life of the people, we therefore appeal to the authority to identify and mine minerals if available to help lift the life of our people. Resources are only helpful when they bring impact to the life of the people.
We don’t agree with the looting narrative and therefore we handle it as a tool used by the war mongers to spread their agenda, AMISOM are our guest, we should always appreciate where they took us from, their success is our success. If they were to fail in their mission, it’s our fail.
The Narratives of not doing enough to secure the country:
We believe that war can be won by negotiation and providing open grounds for reforms, the enemy of Somalia is Somalia itself and we can’t allow AMISOM to kill all of us, everyone must be given time to recollect his ideas and come back to reality.
The fate of any state depends on its attitude towards itself and others; we therefore call upon Somalis to be patriots, law a biders and always accept the reality that there can always be only one legitimate leader at a time. Even though we disagree on opinions and policies, we recognized and support the government of Mohamed Farmaajo until when we will see the needs to challenge him democratically through the ballot.
Military is another key organ that determine the success of any nation, we therefore urge the government to empower our military and the police through benchmarking, equipping them with the most modern weapons, provide them with good housing, free food and Education for them and family, lets modernized our barracks, lets come up with a comprehensive life cover for our fallen heroes, this will lift their morals to protect us.
We should increase the number of our police stations, our current security threat calls for the doubling of our police stations.
We should embrace towards the spirit of the East African community and IGAD, we should allow foreigners to work and walk freely in our country as they allow us to do in their countries, we should develop the policies that attracts international investors.
We should come up with policies that internationalize our capital city of Mogadishu
Yassin Mahi Mallin is a Somali Politician and the Chairman of Somali Social Unity Party (SSUP). He can be reache at [email protected]