Residents of the port city of Kismayo in the Jubbaland regional state of Somalia have welcomed the decision by the Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Mohamed Hussein Roble to expel top level African Union diplomat and ordering him to leave the country within 48 hours.
Amb. Fransisco Madeira, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia was declared persona non grata on Thursday following a letter from the PM office and given 48 hours to leave Somalia.
The announcement was immediately rebuffed by Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo who termed the expulsion as “illegal action” against Amb. Madeira.
A cross section of Kismayo residents welcomed the move by the Somali premier saying it’s legal and the Somali PM is capable of ordering actions that’s deemed to be within law and have substantial impact on the country.
“How can President Farmajo stand in the way of the office of the Somali Prime Minister and outlawing the PM decisions which is within the rule of law. The President is making the office of the PM as an inconsequential one and ineffective which is a recipe for chaos,” Said Abdinasir Ali, a resident of Kismayo.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Mohamed Farah who said the Somali Prime Minister did make the decision out of clear conscience and it’s effective on Amb. Madeira for wanting to instigate a political issue in the country.
“The leaked audio tells it all, the African Union diplomat is out to generate a political infighting within the Somali Federal Government. He should be expelled for talking behind the scenes which is a dangerous move for our country,” Said Mohamed Farah.
At the time of the expulsion letter from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ambassador Francisco was in Nairobi, Kenya and on attempting to enter the country today morning, the Somali Immigration and Nationality Agency revoked his visa.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has asked Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apologize to the AU for the “illegitimate and reckless decision from an unauthorized office.”
Somali Premier Mohamed Hussein Roble and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo seem to be at odds over the African Union Commission chairperson’s expulsion.
Madeira, who is from Mozambique, was appointed to the office in October 2015.
While the Prime Minister did not elaborate on the reason for Madeira’s expulsion, audio purported to be the AU chairperson speaking in a meeting was leaked late Wednesday night.
In the recording, a frustrated Madeira is heard saying that PM is pressuring AMISOM to align with his office.
Madeira is also heard saying that opposition figures – ostensibly including the Prime Minister – were capitalizing on the recent killing of lawmaker Amina Mohamed for political gain.
It was not yet immediately apparent when the audio was leaked.
Francisco Madeira is not the first foreign diplomat to be expelled from Somalia. In early November 2021, Somalia declared Madeira’s deputy, Simon Mulongo, as persona non grata for his support of an AU proposal that would have seen AMISOM fold into a joint AU-UN force instead of the Somalia-supported Somali Transition Plan.
Nicholas Haysom, the UN’s top envoy in Somalia, was expelled in January 2019 after raising concerns about the killing of protesters allied with ex-Al Shabaab militant Islamist Mukhtar Robow.
Somalia’s top leaders, President Farmajo and PM Roble have been at the forefront of Somalia’s protracted political crisis, which has derailed the indirect federal elections for over a year and a half. In late December, Farmajo attempted to suspend PM Roble for suspected corruption. The PM fought back and called the move a coup attempt.
BY OSMAN HUSSEIN ALI
