Somalia gives UN agencies and international Non-governmental organizations (INGOs) an ultimatum of 3 months to relocate offices to Mogadishu or risk severance of cooperation.
“The era in which INGOs would do a day’s or two day’s work here and fly back to Nairobi is finished and no longer acceptable,” Jamal Mohamed Hassan, Minister of Planning, Investments and Economic Development (MoPIED) of the Federal Government of Somalia said, briefing the local media in Mogadishu, Wednesday, at the conclusion of a MoPIED and INGOS Country Directors’ ‘Consultation Meeting’ he had with representatives of international organizations working with Somalia on relief and development programs.
Mr. Jamal continued to say that his government will no longer countenance international NGOs nesting in Nairobi to only occasionally flit in and out of Somalia locations to justify their keep.
“Any organization that does not establish offices in Somalia, employ Somalis, meet payable taxes and operate from within will risk a severance of cooperation with the Somalia authorities,” he said.
He said his government will count out any INGO which does not comply with the new government edict until the end of the year.
“By 1st January 2019 INGOs must have set up offices here or else…”, he pointed out.
Furthermore, Minister Jamal, confidently projecting that ‘beggars had a choice’ after all, proclaimed that said INGOs were no longer permitted to work through or with local NGOs to implement their programs.
“INGOs will be solely working in tandem with ministries, regional and district officials and only with other officially-designated bodies,” he said.
For a country that does not have control over security matters beyond heavily barricaded premises or cannot plausibly guarantee anybody’s safety including theirs, Jamal’s words could only be material for another dustbin space, political analysts were quick to point out.
