Mogadishu-KNN-Somalia’s image, has for decades, been associated with persistent insecurity, food shortage and institutional collapse, but evidence now abounds that the country was making progressive strides.
Somalia watchers must be waiting anxiously as the country hurtles towards the 2021, the regionally agreed deadline for the transition to a constitutional democracy.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), at least 4.2 million Somalis still face food shortage and about 2.9 million more remained displaced within their own country due to insecurity or erratic weather.
Just a week ago, terrorists laid siege on a hotel in Kismayu, breaking a long period of relative peace in the city since the Al-Shabaab fell to Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), supported by their Somali counterparts in 2012.
When President Mohammed Farmaajo came to power in February 2017, he was a realistic assessor of the situation.
“Our government is facing so many challenges and even though I will be doing my best, I also want to make it clear for the Somali public that due to limited resources, what we could do is going to be limited,” he said on his inauguration, reminding the public the problems may need a longer period to resolve.
So what is the fate of Somalia two years later?
Many of the problems, like corruption and insecurity, still face Mogadishu. President Farmaajo’s defining decision upon election was the appointment of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre, a former oil executive and himself a former refugee, who had fled his country for safety. His return to serve, alone, signified a change in perception about the new leadership.
Now the head of the government, Mr Khayre could be the cog that ties key institutions and improves priority areas such as justice and security, inclusive politics and socio-economic and human development. Is it too early to give a verdict?
Perhaps not. Nobody expected Mr Khayre to turn it around overnight. Yet there has been a roadmap laid specially for turning around the view of global institutions about Somalia.
From buttressing the Somali Central Bank which had been rebuilt in 2013, the government received the first grant of $80 million from the World Bank in September last year, signalling the first batch of financial assistance from the institution in 30 years.
Source: Daily Nation
