MOGADISHU, Somalia – A plane carrying a relative of incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was turned back in flight Thursday before landing at Kismayo airport in another dramatic event in Somalia’s tectonic politics.
Abdi Ali Rage, special adviser to outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, was on a plane due to land at Kismayo airport on the Indian Ocean, but authorities in Jubaland were apparently aware of his trip In the region.
Several sources confirmed that the plane was denied landing rights, forcing the pilot to turn around in the air, before returning to Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu. The plane would later return to Kismayo without Rage a few hours later.
“I was on my way to Kismayo to start my comparison for a parliamentary seat in the upcoming elections in Kismayo, but I was kicked out of the city after the pilot was alerted he could not land for safety reasons,” Rage said at a press conference.
Prior to his cooperation with the authorities in Mogadishu, Rage was an advisor to the president of Jubaland, Ahmed Islam Mohamed Madobe, the first president of the state. Madobe disagrees with Mogadishu over the Gedo region.
Despite being a special adviser on electoral matters, Rage is reportedly planning to run for a parliamentary seat in Jubaland. However, he has yet to openly declare his interest, nearly a month before the parliamentary elections kick off.
Although the reason for his profiling by the Jubaland authorities is not yet known, he is believed to be the architect of the current political stalemate between Mogadishu and Kismayo. For months, Farmajo and Madobe hadn’t seen each other in the eye until recently, during the pre-election conference.
“The plane I was traveling in returned to Mogadishu when the pilot noticed that he could not land at Kismayo airport because of me,” said the ex-adviser, accusing authorities in Jubaland of unfair treatment.
The special adviser has been turned away from Kismayo as Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble is in the city for election talks, which will focus mainly on the elections in Gedo. The prime minister arrived in the coastal town of Kismayo on Wednesday with a litany of FGS officials.
In pre-election talks in May, it was concluded that Roble supports the elections in Gedo, where Farmajo is accused of having “vested interests”. It was the way Mogadishu wanted to organize the elections in Jubaland that delayed talks between the FMS and the FGS.
The interference of the FGS in the affairs of Jubaland
For months, Jubaland accused Farmajo of meddling in the affairs of the region, with Madobe saying “he wants to overthrow me by using mercenaries.” Mogadishu has often denied these claims despite deploying troops from Haramcad and GorGor to Gedo as it seeks “full control”.
In August 2019, authorities in Jubaland returned an Ethiopian plane in a similar fashion, days before the region went to the polls. Later, Getachew Rada, spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray [TPLF], claimed on live television that the plane was carrying Ethiopian mercenaries who wanted to “kidnap and assassinate Madobe”.
Although FGS never responded to these claims, the situation deteriorated following the arrest and incarceration of Abdirashid Janan, a former Jubaland security minister. Janan, from Gedo, later escaped prison before returning to Kismayo
Months later he reportedly established a base in Mandera under the “protection” of the Kenya Defense Forces. [KDF] where he trained regional fighters leading to clashes between the Somali National Army [SNA] and the Jubaland security forces. However, he defected from Jubaland and started supporting FGS in May.
Jubaland has been the focal point of the FGS-FMS clashes, in which analysts have often warned that escalating tensions will resuscitate Al-Shabaab, which has been significantly weakened. Kenya has often been drawn into skirmishes, but has repeatedly denied having violated Somalia’s sovereignty.
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