Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (HSM) provoked three scandals while attending the African Union (AU) Summit in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa over the weekend. 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 base their 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, but he might also be 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 susceptible to the 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 than resorting to lies and manufacturing drama. He should be ashamed of himself, and his people should never let him forget how he humiliated all of them by association last weekend.
