Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud,
AMISOM Public Information – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
19 Feb 2024
His bitterness at African countries declining to punish Ethiopia for its Memorandum of Understanding with Somaliland made him a susceptible pawn to his controlling US outreaches, after which he irrelevantly ranted against Russia, clinched a deal with America to build five bases for Somalia, and now tried sabotaging the recent AU summit with his three fake scandals.
US Somalian puppet President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (HSM) provoked three scandals while attending the African Union (AU) Summit in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. He accused his hosts of wanting to annex Somaliland via their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from the beginning of the year, his delegation attempted to smuggle weapons into the venue on the pretext of protecting him, and then his diplomats issued a statement asking the AU to reconsider where to relocate the AU headquarters.
The first of these three is a flat-out lie since their tentative agreement only allows for commercial-military port access, not incorporation into the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, in exchange for Addis recognizing Hargeisa’s redeclaration of independence in 1991. As for the second, HSM didn’t mention that this was why he was blocked from entering the venue and it was only Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman who informed the media of this after he complained to them.
Regarding the last example of his undiplomatic conduct, it’s based on a lie as was explained and is therefore nothing but a shameless attempt to manipulate perceptions of Ethiopia and mislead unaware activists across the world into pressuring the AU to reconsider where to base its headquarters.
Taken together, these three scandals embarrassed his nation and should never have happened. HSM had an opportunity to preserve his country’s dignity but instead lost his cool and discredited it even more.
What he could have done is calmly stated his objections to the MoU without lying about its contents, gone along with protocol by letting his hosts protect him like they do all AU leaders, and not lied about that in order to mar the reputation of that institution. Had he done that, then he would have shown that he’s moved beyond his initial emotionally driven response of assembling allies to wage Hybrid War on Ethiopia and Somaliland and has matured enough to return to diplomacy, thus earning respect.
It’s not just that HSM is emotionally driven and immature buffered by his non-career in the UN, but that he’s operating under foreign influence as suggested by his irrelevant ranting against Russia while in Italy last month in spite of it literally feeding his people for free and the newly clinched deal for the US to build five bases for Somalia. That would account for why he provoked three scandals over the weekend that served the purpose of harming the common cause of African unity that all AU members are supposed to support.
Unlike his peers, he doesn’t care about that anymore since he’s bitter that the continent hasn’t united around his country’s claims to Somaliland, instead refusing to punish Ethiopia for last month’s MoU with Somaliland like he demanded that they do. HSM’s bitterness made him more conveniently amenable to US outreaches, after which he irrelevantly ranted against Russia, clinched a deal with America to build five bases for Somalia, and now tried sabotaging last weekend’s AU summit with his three fake scandals.
Somalians are a proud people who deserve a leader that’ll properly represent them on the international stage, not this stooge who’s embarrassing them with his undiplomatic conduct even if many of them share his opposition to the MoU. There are much better ways to convey one’s displeasure with whatever it may be but his strings are pulled from Washington, which Somalis won’t forget, and that comes first.
© Andrew Korybko 2024, reproduced with permission.
AW Kamau 2024
