Mudulood: The new Kurds of Somalia
Editor’s Note: This opinion piece which was emailed to our editors is part of wider anger and frustration at the Federalization process as envisioned by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud under the guidance of his senior handler Farah Sheikh Abdulqadir and regional countries. On September 21st of this year, senior politicians, clan elders and business leaders of the influential Waceysle clan of Mudulood met in Mogadishu to collectively denounce and condemn the current federalization process which empowers certain clans while undermining others. This opinion piece conveys similar sentiments.
The governor of Hiiraan region of Somalia, Mr. Abdifatah Hassan Afrah, has stated that with support of United Kingdom, his administration will hold a conference in Baladwayne, Hiiraan, in early January, 2015 [1] to form a regional administration for Middle Shabelle and Hiiraan.
He said in the interview referenced below that UK delegation have visited Baladwayne, Hiiraan, and has promised to support the conference as they have supported other conferences in other regions, such as Southwest and Jubba.
If true, this conference will take Banadir out of the regions that will be federated, as suggested earlier by the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Mudulood clan, part of the wider Hawiye clan which lives in Banadir, Middle Shabelle, Galgaduud, especially in the coastal areas, such as Ceeldheer and Mareeg, and parts of Mudug, such as Harardheere, and parts of Lower Shabelle, such as Afgooye, will now be effectively divided into four regions.
If Baladwayne conference materializes, then the Mudulood groups in Galgaduud and Mudug will go to Adado and become a minority in there, because they belong to Galgadud and Mudug, not Middle Shabelle and Hiiraan: to appreciate the implication of this new minority status, Wacasyle clan, Mudulood sub-clan, will sit in a parliament in which all five Habargidir sub-clans, Murusade and others will be present, while non of other Mudulood sub-clans will be present. Those in Lower Shabelle region will certainly become another minority group. This fate will equally apply to other Hawiye clans in Lower Shabelle region, such as the Murusade.
Those Mudulood groups in Middle Shabelle will go to Baladwayne, Hiiraan, where they may be swamped by other clans, or Ethiopia may favor their rivals. In any case, their future is uncertain.
There is no plan now to ask what the people of Banadir wish in relation to the federation process of Somalia in the nearer future. Thus, their fate will remain not in their hands but in the hands of Somalia’s Federal parliament, or parliaments.
If current political schemes of expected Baladwayne conference materialize, Mudulood clans will be effectively divided and shall become weaker in local and national politics. This will happen while a president from this clan is sitting as a president of Somalia. Habargidir will be saved from this minoritization process, because they will fall under single state, the central state, who is about to be formed, as suggested earlier.
It is too early to predict what steps Mudulood will take to protect their interest and unity in Federated Somalia, but what is certain is that emotions and outrages will run high in the coming days, as a result of this expected unadulterated aggressions and humiliations of Mudulood clan.
Strategically, holding the upcoming conference in Baladwayne, Hiiraan will also allow Ethiopia, who maintains an army in the Baladwayne, and Hiiraan region in general, to dominate the conference as it did with Southwest one, and Kenya did with Jubba Regions.
All of these machinations are part of a wider ploy engineered by Kenya and later endorsed by Ethiopia dubbed the “caging of the Hawiye” which calls for the strategic entrapment of the various Hawiye clans and the mutilation of their political and economic interests. It’s regrettable that many Hawiye and in particular Mudulood clan politicians and notable figures have morphed into a willing agents to subjugate and humiliate or indifferent to the plight of their communities.
Samatalis Haille
[email protected]
[1] http://muqdishonews.co/2014/12/20/dhageyso-ingiriiska-oo-taageeraya-hiiraan-iyo-shabeelaha-dhexe/
