Diplomats face off after expulsion order
UNFAZED after being declared persona non grata in Somalia, South Africa’s top UN diplomat, Nicholas Haysom, the special envoy to the Horn of Africa country, has warned that continuing political turbulence could throw the country off course.
Haysom, who is also the head of the UN Assistant Mission in Somalia (Unsom), made the warning during a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in New York on Thursday, UN News reported.
Somalia’s ambassador to the UN, Abukar Dahir Osman, later challenged Haysom, saying South Africa distinguished between the institutions that Somalia was part of and the conduct of individuals that had a detrimental effect on the fragile nation.
Haysom was ordered to leave Somalia on Tuesday after he raised concerns about abuses carried out against Somali civilians by the country’s security forces and wrote a letter to the Somali government asking it to explain the legal basis for arresting Mukhtar Robow, the former al-Shabaab deputy leader who was the main challenger in the South West State elections for regional presidency.
Mogadishu responded by accusing Haysom of violating international diplomatic norms by interfering in the state’s national sovereignty, and ordered him to leave the country.
Addressing the UNSC, Haysom, while commending Somalia’s efforts to tackle corruption and build a lasting peace through political reform and transformation, said everybody involved in the peace process needed to “pull in the same direction”.
Turning to Somalia’s complex “Roadmap on Inclusive Politics” reform process, he warned that a “key milestone” had been missed in not