The first aviation staff member Minister Oomaar used as a sacrificial lamb to discourage the other staff was held incommunicado overnight at a hotel in the Halane/Adan Adde compound to be unceremoniously booted out to the city today.
One-third of staff in Mogadishu are Somalilanders. Government is not even aware of their plight.
Somali aviation staff quartered within the Adan Adde International Airport compound of Mogadishu are beset by new government punitive measures and fresh bullying to subjugate them tow irresponsible Aviation directives which violate an afore-signed agreement between staff, on the one hand, and the government and ICAO on the other.
The last of the staff were relocated from the FISS (Flight Information Services of Somalia) office in Nairobi to Mogadishu in June 2018 on an agreement the Federal Government entered with ICAO which, by itself, was a direct abrogation of an international chaperoned joint, airspace management agreement between Somaliland and Somalia signed in Istanbul II Communique in 2014.
The Backdrop
The Somali airspace has gone through what seemed to be major developments in 2018, the first of which was its relocation from Its base for the past 25 years Nairobi to Mogadishu. It was to the easily persuaded, war-ridden Somali people the start to a new era for their country. An era in which they would reclaim their statehood and sovereignty, behind their ‘valiant’ leaders – Farmajo and Kheyre, who ironically weren’t really Somali citizens as they both held foreign passports.
But what the lay-Somali did not know was that the process of relocation was gravely rushed against the recommendations of the experts in ICAO, who first came up with a roadmap and a plan that should be followed for the best interests of the Somali government. Among its suggestions was to equip all the major airports in the country and to especially enhance the service of the primary Area Control Centre (ACC) designated to be in Mogadishu followed by Hargeisa which was to be provided the same set of the equipment delivered to Mogadishu so to establish another operational field to take over management of airspace and related operations in case the ACC apparatus malfunctioned or failed.
But going against the recommendations of the experts, Somalia’s newly elected government decided to hasten the process and relocate the project – regardless in an attempt to drum up public support for its self-promoting ‘visions’ across the spectrum.
The staff of the project that manned the airspace from Nairobi, impassioned as they were to get back to their motherland, accepted the move and welcomed it believing the image government projected of itself in commissioned media coverages as the ‘savior of the Somali people’.
transferred Staff Rights
Prior to the relocation, ICAO promised the staff certain securities such as the maintenance of salary grades and accommodation inside the airport for the safety of the staff who would become targets of Al Shabaab militants wishing to harm government where it hurt most – the airport.
The quarters for the staff was to be consisted of enough rooms to accommodate the nearly 60 persons from Nairobi. The Somalia government agreed to follow the instructions of ICAO which were in line with United Nations Department for Safety and Security recommendations to set up a one person per room policy to prevent possible security and sanitary problems.
The Somalia government and ICAO, therefore, contracted a company to build the ACC building as well as quarters for the staff consisting of 50 rooms, planning for the construction of more rooms within 2018.
Surprisingly – or perhaps not so surprisingly – the company failed to meet the recommendations of ICAO regarding the building of the ACC and – more strangely – everybody looked the other way – an indication of the depth of corruption rot.
The company only built 40 rooms and never started building the additional quarters. Ten rooms lined some pocket leaving some 12 national and foreign staff members living in container cubicles which go by the description of ‘hotel rooms’ within the airport compound.
The project started relocating to Mogadishu in March 2018.
The government sent letters to hotels located within the Mogadishu Airport Area to accommodate staff members who could not find space at the FISS housing until 31 December 2018, at which date the proposed completion of the additional rooms was to have been completed.
The Situation
Contrary to all expectations, and to exacerbate an already uncomfortable arrangement, the Acting Director of the Somalia civil aviation called the staff to a meeting on 6 December which the Minister of Aviation, himself, presided. The Ministry went directly to the subject stating that staff members were going to share rooms from now on. Staff members tried to remind the minister that what he proposed went against UN/ICAO recommendations and a move like this would threaten the safety of the airspace, an argument the minister completely ignored. Her neither explained what happened to the additional quarters that were planned and paid for.
Consequently, staff members decided to apprise the prime minister and ICAO of the new developments explaining the situation.
The letter pointed out not only was the government responsible for staff welfare and ease of living and working conditions, but ICAO/FISS foreign staff, supervising the transition failed their duties, too.
“To our understanding, the work of the ICAO-FISS management is to manage the relationship between ICAO and The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS).ICAO-FISS staff should not have been intimidated by the minister since they are contracted by ICAO. The management should have advised the security and other potential implications of this directive to the minister. ICAO-FISS management failed their responsibility and they should be knowledgeable of the staff rights and working conditions in insecure, non-family duty station(s) like Mogadishu and should have instead taken the necessary actions on the staff wellbeing”, the letter stated.
The staff letter went on to sum up the developing situation as regards why staff did not think sharing rooms was a viable option in 11 clear points, stating:
- Security – Knowing the security situation in Mogadishu, United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) has advised ICAO FISS project that: as one of the main requirements for accommodation within the MIA that each room must be assigned to only one person. The minister’s directive contradicts the UNDSS security guidelines and puts staff security at As ICAO letterhead contract holders,we are advising that any security implication of this directive will be borne by ICAO,if they do not intervene.
- Shift System and Airspace Safety – The staff work at different shifts because they run 24-hour operations. The Minister’s directive will affect the staff performance and airspace safety if staff share rooms. For example: Suppose one night-shift staff shares a room with another staff who was off that day, the sleep of the night shift person will be interrupted during the day since the staff who is off may listen to music, take an online class or watch TV during the day. This means the night shift person will come to work tired and may sleep on the job since his sleep was interrupted. This may result in serious air miss or other incidents hence affecting the airspace safety. Also, the sleep deprivation will cause under-performance at work, serious health and psychological condition in the long term.
- Health – Some of the staff may have various health conditions and diseases that could be contagious and transmitted in case someone shares a room with a fellow staff. This directive may cause diseases and infections to be transferred from one person to another
- Hygiene – Considering the hygienic practices of some of the staff, one may feel uncomfortable living with someone in the same room.
- Contract – As per the relocation letter, we are to receive an accommodation that meets the Minimum Operating Security Standard { MOSS) compliant as per UNDSS rules.
- Tribal conflicts and nationalities: In Somalia, we have had inter-clan conflicts where some people lost their parents. Sharing a room with the clansman of the person who killed your parent may provoke anger, cause damage and l Also the staff consists of different nationalities so this may cause a culture clash if we put two staff in one room.
- Individual status and socio-cultural practices – According to the cultural practices of the staff,it is not acceptable for two grown-ups to share a room unless they are partners.Forcing two staff members to share a room may result in situations like rape, assault or sexual harassment of the
- Staff preferences and rivalry: Human beings have different choices and desires and it is a basic human right. Based on the different preferences some may want to be loud,have the lights on, Air conditioning put off among other things. This may evoke unnecessary conflicts,hence causing fights. We do not want to see a situation where a staff member stabs his colleague with a knife while sleeping due to these conflicts.
- Privacy – Privacy is a basic right that every decent human being should enjoy. With sharing rooms, staff will give up their privacy and it is non-negotiable for staff to give up their privacy.
- Room sizes – All rooms are too small to accommodate 2 staff me
- Non-family duty station – Working at non-family duty station is stressful, let alone with no rest and recuperation leave (R&R) as in our case, the only way we manage this situation is to be virtually present in the lives of our family members through phone calls and video calls to see our spouses, children, parents and other family members in order to build their morale and give With sharing rooms this would not be possible and would psychologically affect both the staff and the family members.
Fearful
To their surprise, the staff were met with fresh threats to their lives and accusations of working with Alshabaab – a tactic the Somalia government has now perfected to weed out opposition to any of its plans – large or small.
The Ministry, using operatives from the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) selected a respected, articulate staff member as a sacrificial lamb. NISA said it was acting on the direct orders of the Minister and SCAA.
The grounds for the arrest was, according to NISA “not respecting the minster’s speech” which eerily resembles the techniques used by the military dictator, Siad Barre and his cronies. The staff member has never done anything that would make him deserve such treatment, in fact he was only arrested to be made and example of, this was clearly an act of frightening, divide and conquer by the government
To add fuel to fire the said staff who was arrested and harassed was today awarded with suspension for no other reason than voicing the concerns of the staff as a whole. His termination was done in a way unbefitting to an organization such as ICAO, with no prior notice and no legitimacy.
Furthermore, in an attempt to save face, the minister of aviation has started to spread false accusations and slander against the staff claiming they want to go back to Nairobi and that they are against the developments of the country (identical to the famous old kacaan–diid brand), a baseless, false and defamatory claim.
The staff who are in Mogadishu at the moment are surprised as to how things escalated quickly to such alarming, scary proportions. They are worried for their safety since the government has decided to beat staff to a total, degrading submission by using force and false allegations to expel them, put them behind bars or – eventually – even license its operatives to kill any detractor to be justified by the oft-touted ‘security measure’ signature.
One-third of the aviation staff thus threatened and – justifiably – in fear for their safety are from Somaliland. They were trained for airport operations in Somaliland. They had a right to be stationed in Somaliland enjoying the same rights as their Somalia colleagues and not to be dumped at Mogadishu.
The government in Somaliland is not even aware of their plight. The man responsible for its Aviation – an octogenarian, ex-pilot, Captain Rodol, is working hand-in-glove with Minister Oomaar of Somalia – for reasons not even remotely advantageous to Somaliland and its people.
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