Security in Mogadishu has entered a highly volatile, mercurial situation Thursday evening with opposing forces on face-off at locations not far off from Villa Somalia, the government seat.
Following a government directive which prohibited mass gatherings and public associations in any form or extent restricting movement also, Wednesday, the opposition interpreted it as an ill-concealed measure to block a mass demonstration planned for Friday.
Responding to the threat that government security forces were to prevent crowds from gathering by force if necessary, a number of presidential candidates checked in at Al Maida Hotel, near the Unknown Soldier (Daljirka Dahsoon) monument where the public protest against President’s overstay at the presidency would be staged.
Among these are Sheikh Sharif and Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud – both of whom had led the country before Farmajo.
Together with Abdirahman Abdishakur, another leading figure of the union of candidates, the protesting presidential hopefuls walked to the venue of the planned demonstrations in the afternoon in defiance of the government edit. They were escorted by heavily armed units of their security commanded by General Yussuf Indhacadde.
Speaking to the media, Sheikh Shariff said Farmajo was no different from the candidates and he should abdicate the chair to run for president as they do since his mandated term has long expired.
On its part, the government deployed specially trained police and army units on the city’s main roads closing off all approaches to the Daljirka monument. Even feeder roads and alleyways leading on to other roads were closed to the public in a radius of four kilometres to all sides of the appointed square. Some of the busiest shopping centres of the city lying on either side of the 1st Avenue drained of life eerily abandoned once the government forces started shooing off people from the streets.
Snipers had also taken commanding positions, the reports add.
In a situation that can turn uglier any minute from now on to tomorrow, some of the people near potential confrontation areas have started moving to other areas or to nearby towns afraid of what could happen if the opposing forces physically clashed.
President Farmajo’s term in office ended on 8 February.
The opposition proposed a transitional national council be instated to act as a caretaker body leading the country to elections which should be rescheduled to another date.
The proposal was turned down by both the government and international partners without replacing it with any reliable or constitutional alternative.
A government-organized 14-member technical committee which met in Baidoa announced that they have resolved a number of contentious points and that their proposal will go into effect once the president signed it into implementation.
Absent from the Baidoa discussions were the presidential candidates union and other key figures which claimed legitimate roles in a discussion of contested issues.
Both the union of candidates and Somaliland-born pro-Somalia re-union MPs claiming they represented Somaliland in Mogadishu brushed off the committee’s professed resolution as illegitimate and inconsequential.
Somalia, tonight, according to the reports has entered an unpredictable phase which in any which way weighed does not augur well for a conducive political environment in the foreseeable, near future.
As it stands, the situation can only be saved by an intervention from prominent traditional leaders and/or politicians who can command the ear and commitment of both sides to avoid bloodshed.
