Somalian President Backs Down from Constitutional Crisis

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed is the current president of Somalia (Wikimedia).

As conflicts intensified in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmaajo, called for elections. In a speech given to state television on April 28, he also agreed not to go forward with an internationally condemned plan to extend his term by two years. His decision has initiated talks with his political opponents, as well as prompted a planned appearance before Parliament on May 1 in order to “gain their endorsement for the electoral process.”

“As we have repeatedly stated, we have always been ready to implement timely and peaceful elections in the country," Farmaajo claimed in his speech. “But unfortunately, our efforts were hampered by individuals, and foreign entities who have no aim other than to destabilize the country and take it back to the era of division and destruction in order to create a constitutional vacuum.”

Following a breakdown in discussions between the Somalian federal government and its autonomous states, elections scheduled for February 8 never occurred. In the following months, the main opposition party and rival clans to Farmaajo consolidated their military power in the capital in order to force the president to reconsider. Alongside growing protests, the tensions have forced between 60,000 and 100,000 from their homes in Mogadishu, joining the 2.6 million Somalis currently displaced.

According to one account from Mogadishu, “Both the Somali security forces and the pro-opposition fighters have taken positions along some key roads, there is civilian transport movement but, in some areas, they are not allowing anyone to move.”

Such division has existed in Somalia ever since warlords overthrew the previous dictator in 1991 and established a federation of autonomous states. In the early 2000s, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated group of Al-Shabaab took control of parts of southern Somalia. They are still active— they often sending suicide bombers to Mogadishu, and they threatened to attack the polls during the 2021 election.

Farmaajo, who left his life in Western New York to win the Somalian presidency in 2017, is no stranger to these threats. A diplomat to the United States before the 1991 coup, he went on to become a U.S. citizen and study at the University of Buffalo. Farmaajo then served as Somali Prime Minister in 2010 where he fought against corruption, though following a deal that gave the current president an extra year in office, Farmaajo had to go. 

Farmaajo previously defended the two-year extension because it would give him more time to enact his long-term goal for the country: a democratic, one-person, one-vote election, which he hopes will create a strong enough state to transcend divisions and defeat Al-Shabaab. Under the current system, clan leaders choose members of parliament, who then choose a president. Farmaajo said that he would “absolutely” step down following the election of a different president.

However, doubts remain as to Farmaajo’s commitment to democracy. Abdi Ismail Samatar, a University of Minnesota professor who acted as an independent observer to the 2017 election, has called Farmaajo’s efforts toward democracy “futile.” He goes on to suggest that Mogadishu could have attempted elections given the federal government’s strength there, and he cast doubt on the occurrence of national elections taking place throughout the “Texas”-sized country.

Farmaajo faces just as much criticism domestically, with even his former executive joining the ranks of the opposition. Clan leaders have also warned Mohamed Ali Had that he has tread onto dangerous grounds and that “[suppressing] our views was what forced us to oust late dictator Siad Barre, which led to the destruction of the country.”