Saturday September 3, 2022
Mogadishu (HOL) - Somalia's Minister for Interior Affairs, Federal and Reconciliation, Ahmed Moallim Fiq, denied that the federal government is at odds with the regional administrations, particularly in Southwest state.
On Friday, Ahmed Fiqi told a state-run television programme that the federal government has a good relationship with the Southwest regional state but that Al Shabaab's militant insurgency and crippling drought have affected intergovernmental cooperation in Somalia.
Fiqi added that the federal government wants to assist in liberating Southwest Southwest from al Shabaab control and that life-saving aid was being dispatched to alleviate drought conditions.
"Somalia's Disaster Management Agency (SODMA) will soon dispatch drought relief aid to the worst-affected areas in Southwest state," ensuring that the federal government and member states do not clash.
Ilyas Ali Hassan, a former South West Senator and current federal Minister of State for Interior and Reconciliation, told residents in his Burhakaba constituency in Mogadishu last month to arm themselves and close roads in defence of the district. He claimed that despite being one of the most heavily taxed districts in the regional state, Burhakaba remains underdeveloped.
"Certain people from the Digil and Mirifle clans run the Southwest government and oppose the development of the Burhakaba district. The money the Southwest state government collects from the Burhakaba district cannot be raised anywhere else in the state ".
Federal member states announced on Saturday that they had suspended cooperation with the central government in Mogadishu after accusing it of violating previous resource-sharing agreements.
Engineer Mohamud Aidid Dirir, Puntland's Minister of Information, stated that the current Somali government, led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, is not committed to leading the country in the federal system.
The primary source of contention appears to be the distribution of resources and aid.
In late August, Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Barre visited two regional capitals to strengthen cooperation with Mogadishu. President Mohamud travelled to Garowe to meet with Puntland's reportedly disgruntled President Deni, while Prime Minister Barre met with senior military officials in Beledweyne to discuss the ongoing SNA offensive in Hiiraan.