Region

NAIROBI — Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who won Sunday’s long-overdue presidential election in Somalia, takes charge as the troubled nation reels from drought, looming famine, political and economic strains, and a violent insurgency.

Mending fences 

The Horn of Africa country was supposed to choose a new leader in February 2021 but missed the deadline as Somalia’s political leaders squabbled over the election process.

The impasse turned violent when then-President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known by his nickname Farmajo, extended his term in what opponents decried as an unconstitutional power grab.

Farmajo appointed his prime minister to arrange a fresh vote but the task drove a wedge between the two men, putting the vote even further out of reach.

The crisis paralysed the government at a time when stability was badly needed to confront the burning challenges at hand, analysts said.

Farmajo’s presidency exacerbated tensions between the central government and some states, most notably Jubaland, and there were violent clashes between their respective forces.

The outgoing president was also accused of using Somalia’s security forces to further his political ambitions while in office.

In a victory speech to the nation after being sworn in following Sunday’s vote, Mohamud struck a conciliatory tone, promising to “heal any grievances” as the country moved forward.

“His message to them, the federal member states and the MPs that supported President Farmajo, is not to fear his presidency,” said Samira Gaid, executive director of the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute think tank.

“I think... that [is the] kind of work, on reconciliation and political dialogue, that needs to happen.”

Security strategy 

Mohamud, who ruled Somalia between 2012 and 2017, confronts a familiar threat that dogged his government and others for over a decade — a deadly and persistent insurgency by the Al Shabaab militant group.

In March, the United Nations renewed the mandate of a 20,000-strong African Union force known as AMISOM that has been on the ground since 2007 to support the foreign-backed government in confronting the Al Qaeda-linked terrorists.

The reconfigured mission, dubbed ATMIS (the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia), calls for a more offensive strategy than in recent years with the goal of gradually reducing troop numbers to zero by the end of 2024.

Somalia’s international backers have warned that the prolonged infighting over the election has distracted from the threat of Al Shabaab, which has consolidated its rural territory and in recent months stepped up attacks.

“Things have changed. Al Shabaab is not the same as it was when he [Mohamud] left office in 2017,” Gaid said.

“With [the] AMISOM drawdown, Somali security forces need reorganisation.”

Omar Mahmood, an analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, said a new leader could also consider a more political approach to tackling the Islamists, and perhaps even set the mood for any possible dialogue with them.

“How a new administration signals about that, the tone it presents, is very important early on,” he told AFP before Sunday’s vote.

“Even if Al Shabaab isn’t ready right now, it’s sort of opening up a channel... to lay the groundwork” for any dialogue.

“It’s a process, it’s a very long-term thing.”

Famine forecast 

Somalia is vulnerable to climate shocks, and currently suffering its worst drought in decades.

The United Nations says some 6.1 million people — roughly 40 per cent of the entire population — have been affected and 760,000 people have fled their homes.

Humanitarian organisations have warned that without a significant increase in aid, Somalia could soon face the kind of famine not seen since 2011 when 260,000 people perished from hunger.

The government has little capacity to tackle the problem on its own.

But observers say political stability in Mogadishu would help in coordinating the emergency response, and presenting a unified appeal for aid.

Economy on the edge 

A poor, indebted country lacking critical infrastructure, Somalia is dependent on foreign aid to function.

According to the World Bank, nearly three-quarters of Somalia’s 15 million people live on less than $1.90 (1.80 euros) each day.

The election delays threaten a crucial assistance package from the International Monetary Fund, which expires automatically on Tuesday if a new administration does not approve key reforms.

The government has asked for a three-month extension to this deadline.

The economy grew by 2.9 per cent in 2019 and was tipped to expand further in 2020.

But it instead contracted as the coronavirus pandemic, a locust infestation and floods took their toll, the World Bank said, and forecasts are still below pre-COVID projections.

Pervasive corruption also continues to be an issue — Somalia sits near the bottom of Transparency International’s world corruption index, ranking 178 out of 180 nations alongside Syria.

BEIRUT — Lebanon voted on Sunday in its first election since multiple crises dragged it to the brink of failed statehood, a major test for new opposition groups bent on removing the ruling elite.

Observers have warned not to expect any seismic shift, with every lever of power firmly in the hands of traditional sectarian parties and an electoral system rigged in their favour.

After an underwhelming campaign stifled by the nation's all-consuming economic turmoil, queues of voters started forming when polling stations opened at 7:00 am (4:00 GMT).

The army deployed across the country to secure a parliamentary election Lebanon's donors have stressed was a pre-requisite for financial aid crucial to rescue it from bankruptcy.

A new generation of independent candidates and parties are hoping to kindle the change that an unprecedented anti-corruption uprising in 2019 failed to deliver.

"I am with change because we tried this current political class before and now is the time to bring in new faces," Nayla, a 28-year-old who only gave her first name, said after casting her vote in Beirut.

Independents can hope for more than the lone seat they clinched in 2018 but most of parliament's 128 seats will remain in the clutches of a political elite blamed for the country's woes.

The outgoing chamber was dominated by the Iran-backed Shiite movement Hizbollah and its two main allies: the Shiite Amal Party of speaker Nabih Berri who has held the job since 1992, and the Christian Free Patriotic Movement of President Michel Aoun.

"It seems almost impossible to imagine Lebanon voting for more of the same — and yet that appears to be the likeliest outcome," said Sam Heller, an analyst with the Century Foundation.

Lebanon was mutilated by an August 2020 blast at the Beirut port that went down as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and deepened one of the most spectacular economic downturns of our time.

Corruption 

The Lebanese pound has lost 95 per cent of its value, people's savings are blocked in banks, minimum wage won't buy a tank of petrol and mains electricity comes on only two hours a day.

Despite assurances from the interior ministry that polling stations would be powered on election day, local media reported power cuts in some centres.

Videos shared online showed people sporting their candidate’s colours and shepherding voters into polling booths, continuing a decades-old trend of vote buying.

More than 80 per cent of Lebanon’s population is now considered poor by the United Nations, with the most desperate increasingly attempting perilous boat crossings to flee to Europe.

Once described as the Switzerland of the Middle East, Lebanon ranked second-to-last behind Afghanistan in the latest World Happiness Index released in March.

Despite international pressure to reform Lebanese politics, the corruption that sank the country is still rife, including in the electoral process.

At one candidate’s rally in the northern city of Tripoli, some well-wishers disappointed by the lack of cash handouts made off with the plastic chairs.

Low hopes 

While Sunday’s election might not topple their reviled leadership, some Lebanese see the vote as an important test for the principles that arose during the October 2019 uprising.

For Marianne Vodolian, a spokesperson for families of victims of the cataclysmic August 2020 explosion that disfigured Beirut and killed more than 200 people, voting is a sacred duty.

“We are against the regime that ruled us for 30 years, robbed us and blew us up,” said the 32-year-old.

“The elections are an opportunity to change the system and hold it accountable in a way that makes this country liveable,” Vodolian said.

Top political barons have stalled an investigation into the explosion — two of the main suspects are even running for a seat — and legal proceedings against the Central Bank governor over financial crimes are equally floundering.

One of the most notable changes in the electoral landscape is the absence of former prime minister Saad Hariri, which leaves parts of the Sunni vote up for grabs by new players.

TUNIS — A crowd estimated at more than 2,000, lower than expected, took part Sunday in the first demonstration of a new alliance to oppose a power grab by President Kais Saied.

"We shall overcome," and "We are united, not divided," read banners of the National Salvation Front protesters gathered in front of the municipal theatre on Bourguiba Avenue, a traditional hub of demonstrations in central Tunis.

"The people want... respect for the constitution and a return to democracy," they chanted.

Veteran opposition figure Ahmed Nejib Chebbi announced the formation of the new alliance on April 26 to “save” Tunisia from deep crisis following Saied’s power grab last year.

Chebbi, 78, was a prominent opponent of dictator Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali’s rule.

Demonstrators said they were disappointed by the numbers that turned out for the first public show of support for the alliance.

“A larger crowd” was expected, said Salah Tzaoui, a 57-year-old teacher, especially by those who had lived under Ben Ali who was ousted in a 2011 popular uprising that sparked the Arab Spring revolts around the region.

Saied, a former law professor elected in 2019 amid public anger against the political class, on July 25 sacked the government, suspended parliament and seized wide-ranging powers.

He later gave himself powers to rule and legislate by decree, and seized control over the judiciary.

“He wants to govern alone. It’s not possible. I’m here for my children and grandchildren,” Tzaoui told AFP.

Khaled Benabdelkarim, a 60-year-old fellow teacher who voted for Saied three years ago, said the president had “betrayed the people and stolen democracy. He has no political project, no economic project”.

The National Salvation Front comprises five political parties including Saied’s nemesis the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, along with five civil society groups involving independent political figures.

Saied’s initial power grab was welcomed by many Tunisians sick of the often-stalemated post-revolution political system.

But an increasing array of critics say he has moved the country down a dangerous path back towards autocracy in what was the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring.

Saied has argued that the North African country’s 2014 constitution allowed him to take “exceptional measures”.

ABU DHABI — The UAE’s new president, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, held talks Sunday with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron as world leaders streamed in to the oil-rich Gulf state to pay tribute to his late predecessor.

Macron, on his first foreign trip since his second term started last week, expressed his condolences to the leader dubbed “MBZ” following the death of his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa on Friday after a long illness.

Macron, the first Western leader to pay his respects, will be followed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israel’s president and the king of Spain, among a long list of dignitaries.

The United Arab Emirates has begun wielding increased influence in the Middle East and further afield due to its wealth, oil resources and strategic location.

MBZ has been quietly running the country since 2014 when Sheikh Khalifa, his 73-year-old half-brother, was sidelined by a stroke. The cause of his death was not announced.

Presidents and monarchs from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Tunisia and Sudan’s de facto ruler were among the leaders to offer their condolences on Saturday.

On Sunday, Qatar’s emir, Bahrain’s king and the Palestinian, German and Indonesian presidents were among more than 20 senior officials expected.

Macron, in his talks with Sheikh Mohamed, 61, expressed his “sincere condolences to his family and the people” over Sheikh Khalifa’s death, according to the French presidential office.

“The United Arab Emirates are a strategic partner for France, a fact that is borne out by the degree of our cooperation in areas as varied as defence, culture and education,” it added.

Flags at half-mast

Flags are at half-mast around the country, which is observing 40 days of mourning for Sheikh Khalifa who took over after the death of his father, founding president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, in 2004.

Sheikh Mohamed was chosen to head the government of the desert state in a unanimous vote Saturday by leaders of the country’s seven emirates, as had been widely expected.

MBZ’s close ally, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, called to congratulate the new president and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to commend his “dynamic and visionary leadership”.

Blinken and Harris were due Monday for a visit that could help repair ties strained since President Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump in the White House.

The two sides have been at odds over Abu Dhabi’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Washington’s reopening of nuclear talks with Iran, long accused by Gulf states of creating regional chaos. 

Both Macron and Johnson were making their second visits to Abu Dhabi in recent months. Johnson’s visit in March failed to convince the UAE and Saudi Arabia to pump more oil after Russia’s war in Ukraine sent markets into turmoil.

The wealthy UAE has emerged as a leader of a reshaped Middle East, forging ties with Israel and joining a Saudi-led war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. 

The UAE signed a 14 billion-euro contract for 80 Rafale warplanes during Macron’s previous visit in December.

MOGADISHU — Somali lawmakers began voting in the country’s long-overdue presidential election on Sunday, with dozens of candidates vying for the top job in the troubled Horn of Africa nation as it battles an Islamist insurgency and the threat of famine. 

The poll has been dogged by claims of irregularities and is well over a year behind schedule, with Somalia’s international partners warning that the delays — caused by political infighting — were a dangerous distraction from the fight against Al Shabaab extremists.

MPs voted under tight security in a tent inside Mogadishu’s heavily-guarded airport complex, with little movement seen in the capital where police have imposed a curfew until Monday. Flights have also been cancelled, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The vote is expected to draw a line under a political crisis that has lasted well over a year, after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s term ended in February 2021 without an election.

“We are tired of living with uncertainty... I hope a president will be elected and today is the end of the nonsense,” Muktar Ali, a Mogadishu resident, told AFP.

Mohamed, better known as Farmajo, is now seeking reelection but faces tough competition from former presidents Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Ex-prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire, Puntland state president Said Abdullahi Dani and former foreign minister Fawzia Yusuf Adan — the lone female contender — are also in the running.

In addition to a months-long feud between Farmajo and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, the central government has also been embroiled in disputes with certain states, slowing down the voting process.

Somalia’s international partners, which include the United States, the United Nations and the African Union (AU), on Saturday urged parliamentarians to “vote their conscience”.

“High time for Somalia’s leadership to focus on reconciliation and peacebuilding,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter. 

An AU force is securing the election venue, after a spate of attacks in recent weeks by Al Shabaab which has been fighting to overthrow the government for more than a decade.

Complex process

The election is expected to take several hours and stretch late into the night with multiple rounds of voting.

“Three candidates have so far dropped out, and we [now] have 36 candidates running,” Senator Abdiqani Gelle, chairman of a parliamentary committee overseeing the election, said on Sunday.

A parliamentary source had earlier told AFP that four contenders had quit the race.

The victor must secure a minimum of 184 votes.

Somalia has not held a one-person, one-vote election in 50 years. Instead, polls follow a complex indirect model, whereby state legislatures and clan delegates pick lawmakers for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.

“In terms of predicting the outcome, Somalia politics is notoriously difficult to predict, especially because it is an indirect, sort of closed system with MPs voting for the president,” said Omar Mahmood, an analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank.

“At the end of the day, I think it’s... predominantly about alliances and relationships rather than concrete ideas,” he told AFP.

Famine fears

The contenders have vowed to tackle Somalia’s myriad problems and bring relief to citizens weary of jihadist violence, surging inflation and a worsening drought that threatens to drive millions into famine.

UN agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe unless early action is taken, with emergency workers fearing a repeat of the devastating 2011 famine, which killed 260,000 people — half of them children under the age of six.

The heavily indebted country is also at risk of losing access to a three-year $400 million (380 million-euro) aid package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is set to automatically expire by mid-May if a new administration is not in place by then.

The government has asked for a three-month extension until August 17, according to the IMF, which has not yet responded to the request.

The international community has long warned Somalia’s government that the country’s political chaos has allowed Al Shabaab to exploit the situation and carry out more frequent and large-scale attacks.

Al Qaeda-linked extremists controlled Mogadishu until 2011 when they were pushed out by an African Union force, but still hold territory in the countryside.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The US and EU led an international outcry Saturday after Israeli forces charged the funeral procession in Jerusalem of slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and beat pallbearers who almost dropped her coffin.

Thousands of people packed Jerusalem's Old City on Friday for the burial of the veteran Al Jazeera journalist, two days after she was killed in an Israeli forces raid in the occupied West Bank.

Television footage showed the pallbearers struggling to stop Abu Akleh's casket from falling to the ground as baton-wielding troops charged towards them, grabbing Palestinian flags from mourners.

The United States said it was "deeply troubled" by the scenes, while the European Union said it was "appalled" by the "unnecessary force".

The Jerusalem Red Crescent said 33 people were injured, of whom six were hospitalised. Israeli occupation authorities said six arrests were made after mourners had thrown "rocks and glass bottles".

Israel and the Palestinians traded blame for the death of Abu Akleh on Wednesday who was shot in the head during the Israeli forces raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli forces said an interim investigation could not determine who fired the fatal bullet, noting stray Palestinian gunfire or Israeli sniper fire aimed at militants were both possible causes.

But the Palestinian prosecutor's office in the West Bank city of Ramallah said later the initial results of an investigation showed "the only origin of the shooting was the Israeli occupation forces".

Al Jazeera has said Israel killed her "deliberately" and "in cold blood".

In a rare, unanimous statement, the UN Security Council condemned the killing and called for "an immediate, thorough, transparent and impartial investigation", according to diplomats.

'Deeply disturbed' 

Abu Akleh, a Christian and a Palestinian-American, was a star reporter and her funeral drew massive crowds.

As her body left St Joseph's hospital in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces stormed mourners who had hoisted Palestinian flags.

The United States was "deeply troubled to see the images of Israeli police intruding into her funeral procession today," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

"Every family deserves to be able to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner."

The EU said it was “appalled by the violence in the St Joseph Hospital compound and the level of unnecessary force exercised by Israeli police throughout the funeral procession.”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was also “deeply disturbed” by the violence, according to a spokesman.

Thousands of Palestinian mourners attempted to follow the coffin towards the cemetery just outside the walled Old City.

Police briefly attempted to prevent them but ultimately relented, allowing thousands to stream towards the graveside, and did not intervene as Palestinian flags were waved, AFP reporters said.

‘Sister of all Palestinians’ 

In a sign of Abu Akleh’s prominence, she was given what was described as a full state memorial service on Thursday at Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s compound in Ramallah before her body was transferred to Jerusalem.

The United States, European Union and United Nations have backed calls for a full investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing.

Israel has publicly called for a joint probe, which the Palestinian Authority has rejected.

Grief over Abu Akleh’s killing spilt beyond the Palestinian territories, with protests erupting in Turkey, Sudan and elsewhere.

She “was the sister of all Palestinians”, her brother Antoun Abu Akleh told AFP.

Fresh violence 

Fresh violence erupted on Friday in the West Bank, including a raid and clashes around Jenin refugee camp in which an Israeli commando was killed.

The Islamic Jihad movement said its fighters were responsible.

The Israeli officer killed was identified as Noam Raz, a 47-year-old father of six. Police said he was wounded “during a shootout with armed terrorists”, and later died.

The Palestinian health ministry said 13 Palestinians were wounded in the confrontations, one of them seriously.

An AFP photographer said Israeli forces had surrounded the home of a suspect, besieging two men inside and firing anti-tank grenades at the house in an effort to flush them out.

Tensions were already running high after a wave of anti-Israeli attacks that have killed at least 18 people since March 22, including an Arab-Israeli police officer and two Ukrainians.

A total of 31 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have died during the same period, according to an AFP tally, among them perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.