By Somalilandtimes network

Baidoa, Somalia, April 8, 2006 – The simmering conflict between the various warlords and factions in Somalia’s nominal government has picked up steam. Things have gotten so rough between the head honchos (the warlord “president” Abdillahi Yusuf, “prime minister” Ali Geedi and the “speaker of parliament” Sharif Hassan) that they had to seek foreign intervention. This came first in the form of Ethiopian mediation between the man who controls Jawhar, Mohammed Omar Habeeb (Mohammad Dheere) and Ali Geedi.

As a result of the Ethiopian efforts, Mohammed Dheere announced that he would allow “Somalia’s government” to be based in his fiefdom. The second step was to try and convince Abdillahi Yusuf and Sharif Hassan to agree to this arrangement, which required that the three parties of the Addis Ababa understanding (Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Siyum Mesfin, Ali Geedi and Muhammad Dheere) fly to Nairobi in order to meet with Abdillahi Yusuf and Sharif Hassan. The outcome of this last meeting has not been announced yet, but it is clear that Sharif Hassan is not too keen about re-locating to Jawhar.

Abdillahi Yusuf, too, has been footdragging about going back to Jawhar given the scathing personal attacks that he was subjected to recently by Mohammad Dheere. Abdillahi Yusuf does not have much choice since he is more susceptible to Ethiopian pressure and is basically homeless in South Somalia. Ethiopian attempts to send Somalia’s dysfunctional “government” back to Jawhar may backfire because many members of this so-called government are opposed to what they see as Ethiopian meddling in Somalia’s affairs.

Even if the Ethiopian foreign minister is able to persuade Abdillahi Yusuf and Sharif Hassan to agree to make Jawhar the seat of their “government” there is no guarantee that the other warlords and factions would agree to it. Nor does it mean the signatories of that agreement will abide by it. Reconciliation conferences for Somalia are littered with agreements that were signed then quickly discarded.

In previous reports we had mentioned how the leaders of the Baidoa crowd do not trust each other. We gave as an example of this lack of trust, how both Abdillahi Yusuf and Ali Geedi flew to Brussels just to sign a memorandum of understanding with the EU because neither of them trusted the other enough to let him do it on their behalf. A similar incident took place this week between Sharif Hassan and Ali Geedi.

This time, Sharif Hassan insisted on carrying the begging bowl to the international community in Nairobi. When one of Sharif Hassan’s associates was asked, “wasn’t it the prime minister’s job to contact foreign governments about aid to Somalia”, he replied, “the prime minister has not been doing his job, that is why the Sharif is doing it.”

The modus operandi of those assembled in Baidoa is to grab whatever you can before the next guy does, and the competition is ruthless.

The security situation in Baidoa, and in the Bay and Bakool region in general, has deteriorated considerably since the so-called government of Somalia moved there.

This week the militia from Majeertenya (Puntland) that is camped in Wajid murdered a man who is a native of the city, and as a result the city is tense and armed conflict may break out between the natives and the militias from Majeerteenya.

Source: Somaliland Times