The world woke up to new theatrics from the Somalia Government which has been airing complaint after complaint for the past couple of months. After IGAD shared their report concerning the two disputing states, Somalia released a press statement disagreeing with the findings and accusing IGAD of being biased and favoring Kenya.
Currently Federal Government of Somalia has earned itself new nicknames on Social Media like: ‘The whiny state’ ‘the nagging neighbors’, ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ , ‘The Cry-Baby’ and the ‘dramatic princess’ among others; due to its inability to get along with federal states like Jubaland, Somaliland and other neighboring countries as well.
Yesterday evening, Mohamed Abdirazak, the Somalia Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister said his country will withdraw from IGAD because the investigators were compromised and predetermined to exonerate Kenya.
Somalia’s allegation that Kenya was training and deploying Janan’s troops to fight the Somalia National Army was also thrown out of the window by the commission. After the investigation, the team concluded that Janan’s troops were based inside Somalia under the command of the Jubaland forces, rather than an outside entity. The commission suggested Janan’s forces had been ‘deposed’ by the federal forces following their deployment to Gedo last year and a continual disagreement with Jubbaland on the existence of national forces in Gedo.
Kenya, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the findings of the team were proof that Somalia’s claims were a political strategy meant to distract the region from security issues. Meanwhile, IGAD is insisting on developing better diplomatic strategies to settle the tiff between the two countries since working together is vital for the fight against terrorism.
With the tense situation between Somalia and other countries, we are yet to see whether the country will go through with its threat of withdrawing from IGAD or perhaps, it is one of its strategies to get what it wants.
