Farmaajo to extend his Presidential term for two years amid growing concerns of arms deal with Qatar

 Last year in May, there were reports in the media of Somaliland that the President of Somalia Mohamed Farmaajo will be delaying the election in 2021 and rather go ahead with extending his term as the President of the country for two more years.

This is merely the last concern for the Somali people as the persisting problem of weapon use in the country still haunts the civilians. Earlier the Somali government briefed the press about the prevention of weapons crossing the Somalian border by international agencies or parties. This information should have provided some relief to the people but on the contrary, the opposition parties fear that it is the government who might have seized the weapons.

After this information was revealed, the opposition accused the Farmaajo government of hiding weapons which were purchased illegally. A media reports also claimed that a committee of the United Nations sent a letter to Somalia to probe the matter and the imposition of an arms embargo on the country.

The we on shipments were reportedly carried by the Qatari Military aircraft from Eritrea and the committee asked the Somali government for a clarification on this. It is also being noted by the commission that the ruling party has weapons in its box despite the embargo in place.

The activities of the Somali government became suspicious as while announcing the seizure of weapons, the authorities did not reveal anything about the source of the shipment. They refrained from talking about where the weapons came from, what happened to the weapons, the quantity of the weapon seized and many such details. This made people doubt their intentions.

There is a lack of clarity from the federal government’s side and without clarifying the matter, it is impossible to trust the Farmaajo government, which is notorious for its betrayals of people. People suspect that instead of avoiding to break into the armed violence in the country, the government is igniting or supporting war in the Somali territory especially in places like Gedo.

There are high chances that the government is buying weapons from Qatar. A local journalist Ali Adan Mumin revealed that the director of NISA was dealing with the Qatari government to provide arms so that Doha keeps on exporting arms and ammunition in Somalia. These weapons mostly include pistols, said the journalist.

The United Nations had imposed an arms embargo on the troubled country in 1992 because of undue usage of the weapons in the country. The ban continued till 2007, which is also the duration of civil war, after which the government was allowed to buy weapons for safety reasons.