International pressure piles on Roble and Farmaajo to end feuds

GOOBJOOG NEWS|SOMALIA: The international community has demanded Somalia’s top leaders resolve their disputes and focus on the ongoing elections and the war against the militant group Al-Shabaab.

At the UN Security Council, Britain pushed for more pressure on Prime Minister Mohamed Role and outgoing President Mohamed Farmaajo to end their tussles warning the ongoing elections could suffer more setbacks should the two leaders continue feuding.

British ambassador to the UK Barbara Woodward said the Security Council should keep up pressure to put the electoral process back on track and “to see the prime minister and the president resolve their differences quickly … to ensure the security, peace and stability Somalia needs.”

According to AP, the UN Security Council which held a closed door meeting Friday was considering a draft statement that hat would express “deep concern about the ongoing disagreement within the Somali government and the negative impact on the electoral timetable and process.”

It would urge all parties “to resolve their differences through dialogue” and prioritize the holding of elections in accordance with a May 27 agreement stipulating that indirect elections be held this year.

The draft statement would also urge the federal government and regional states “to ensure that any political differences do not divert from united action against al-Shabab.”

UNHELPFUL EXCHANGES

Meanwhile the UN and other foreign missions in Somalia also called for Farmaajo and Roble to avoid the back and forth exchanges and amicably resolve their differences. “We urge the President and Prime Minister to resolve their differences immediately, avoid further unhelpful exchanges of public statements and personnel announcements, refrain from any action that could destabilize the security situation, and re-focus on concluding the overdue elections without further delay,” the foreign missions said in a joint statement.

Separately, the US Bureau of African Affairs also weighed in on the political circus in the country. We urge Farmajo and Roble to resolve their differences peacefully and to focus fully on ending the elections in Somalia without further delay”.

PM Roble and Farmaajo have in the last three weeks gone on a supremacy battle since the intelligence agency NISA claimed its female agent Ikran Farah was killed by Al-Shabaab. The militant group has however distanced itself from the accusations.