Digil Mirifle communities are getting angrier at President Hassan Sheikh and his allies

Editorial

The row over Somali Police and NSA commissioners is symptomatic of Somali Federal Government’s failure to engage, argues Digil Mirifle MPs

The news that that President Hassan replaced many Digil Mirifle officials from their posts and massive growing corruption in the appointment of government officials raises serious questions about whether the government under Hassan Sheikh and his allies are seeking to further erode the power-sharing agreement in Somalia.

Since the Somalia’s coalition government came to power, we have seen what amounts to an assault by the government against its Southern ethnic citizens, unprecedented in scale and pointing to institutional tribalism deep within the heart of President Hassan Sheikh and Prime Minister Saacid’s administration.

Before anyone is tempted to suggest 'there they go again pleading a special case for tribalism', detractors only need look at the Staff Listing of the Office of the Somali President and Prime Minister Saacid, and all of their international travel companions, these lists all highlight the systemic and structural nature of the massive tribalism and chronic violation of Somalia’s power-sharing agreements where Digil Mirifle and other Southern communities tribes are left out or politically excluded from any governmental post in presidential and prime minister’s offices. The disproportionate impact of current power-grabbing on Digil Mirifle communities where more DM populations are caged in IDP camps with severe malnutrition.

It is against this background that the Somali Federal Government's attack on the Digil Mirifle communities is most insidious. Within months of assuming office, the President Hassan and Prime Minister Saacid singled out Digil Mirifle individuals in Somali government. It sent a clear signal to DM communities that this was to be a government of and for the establishment, and forget social justice and national cohesion. Failure to understand the importance of the power-sharing agreements brokered by the UN should maybe not come as a surprise, but it still demonstrates how remote President Hassan and his mostly tribal colleagues have become from the lives of the majority in Somalia.

Hassan Sheikh’s  record on power-sharing agreement has even been criticized by the UN. The Commission has called on the government to develop inclusive and representative government, abandon its proposals to consolidate all powers within his tribe and associates. Instead of meeting its international obligations, the government led Hassan Sheikh has to even interview or consider Digil Mirifle candidates for public and ambassadorial positions.