Somali TFG government sacks last Ambassador hailing from Somaliland
Awdalnews Network, Staff Reporter=
DUBAI/MOGADISHU, 18 Oct. 2007--In a further step aimed at realizing its objective of purging non-Majeerteen Ambassadors in Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdillahi Yusuf’s government has sacked Hussein Mohammed Bullaale, Somalia’s Ambassador to the UAE since 1991.
According to reports Awdalnews received from reliable sources, the TFG’s Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hassan Jama Daafeedow, unceremoniously replaced Bullaale, the last Ambassador hailing from Somaliland, while the Ambassador was performing Umra in Saudi Arabia.
In an unprecedented measure that irked the officials of the UAE Foreign Ministry, Dafeedow, a former expatriate worker in the UAE, submitted a request to UAE officials in September to accepting as Ambassador designate, Mohammad Ahmed Egal, a close relative of TFG President Abdillahi Yusuf.
“In violation of traditional diplomatic practice where transferring of an ambassador should comply with strict diplomatic protocols and be carried out through diplomatic channels, Abdillahi Yusuf’s government behaves like a mafia state where the God-father appoints his family members to highest posts,” said the source.
Other close relatives of the President’s appointed by Yusuf and his henchmen include Yusuf Omar Al Azhari who will replace Mohamed Omar Dubad, Somalia’s veteran ambassador in Geneva, and a nephew of Yusuf’s wife for Kuwait and a female relative for the Somali Embassy in India.
The sources affirmed to Awdalnews that the Foreign Minister Mohammed Eelabe is kept oblivious to all appointments which are carried out by Daafeedow and Faisal, a former cab driver in Washington D.C and a close relative of Yusuf, who is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry.
Ambassador Bullaale, a career diplomat, whose earlier postings included Yemen and Turkey, came to the UAE in 1991 at the collapse of the Siyad Barre regime.
Sources said that while the budget of the Abu Dhabi Embassy during Siyad Barre’s regime was US$320,000 every three months, Bullaale had to manage over the past 16 years to pay the salaries of the Embassy staff through the fees of passports while the UAE government paid for the rent of the Embassy premises and staff accommodation.
“In fact Bullaale has disappointed Yusuf and Daafeedow on several occasions,” the sources said, citing Bullaale’s rejection to assist the TFG with the clearance from Dubai Airport of 150 billion Somali Shillings that Yusuf’s son-in-law Ali Aynab, husband of Maryam Abdillahi Yusuf, had printed in Indonesia.
Dubai Authorities later shipped the money to Mogadishu after strong pressure from Yusuf’s authorities and the President’s son-in-law was released from jail following intervention by the former Foreign Minister Mohammed Sheikh Ismail.
Ambassador Bullaale also snubbed Dafeedow again when a shipment of passports destined for the TFG government was seized in Dubai. The passports were manufactured by Daafeedow and Yusuf’s relatives in Jordan, but Ambassador Bullaale again refused to assist the TFG government in getting clearance for the shipment from UAE authorities. Dubai authorities decided to destroy the passports on the Ambassador’s recommendation.
“Simply Ambassador Bullaale was kept in the dark in both cases and when the UAE Foreign Ministry asked him for clarifications about the shipments he simply admitted his lack of knowledge,” the sources said.
“With the sacking of Bullaale and Dubad, Yusuf’s government has made its position clear that it does not want people hailing from Somaliland as Ambassadors, thus giving more strength to Somaliland’s claim for secession,” the Sources said.
The final straw came when Ambassador Bullaale advised the TFG government against the exorbitant fees of US$300 on new Somali passports.
“Bullaale advised Daafeedow to reduce the fees to less than US$50 per passport,” the sources said, adding that Daafeedow who has promised Yusuf to generate revenue of about US$150 million from the passport fees decided to man all the Embassies with henchmen of his clan.
“Already Yusuf and his lieutenants have pocked US32 Million given by Saudi Arabia as Zakat while non of the USA financial assistance went to the government treasury,” the source said, adding that it seemed as if Yusuf and co. were in rush to collect as much money as they could before they could take flight and runaway from an impending disaster.
