Date: Tue Nov 18 16:59:10 2014
UK-Somali links raise concern as UN alleges corruption and arms deals
Questions raised about Britain’s relationship with Somalia as UN alleges
misappropriation of funds and exploitation of loopholes in an arms embargo
* Clár Ní Chonghaile
<http://www.theguardian.com/profile/clar-ni-chonghaile>
* Tuesday 18 November 2014 12.19 GMT
With humanitarian agencies warning of
<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49216#.VGXhRBaHr7I> another
hunger crisis in Somalia, questions are being raised about Britain’s
relationship with the country’s president in the wake of a
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2014/726> report by UN
investigators alleging corruption and links with Islamic militants.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party’s MP, plans to table
<http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-st
atements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&
house=commons%2clords&member=3930> questions in parliament this month
seeking information on Britain’s reaction to the corruption allegations and
to a controversial oil deal.
“The UN monitoring group has raised some serious concerns about corruption
in Somalia and about activities that may be undermining the arms embargo,
which the UK has formally supported. My parliamentary questions are an
attempt to get the facts into the public domain,” Lucas said.
“The allegations relating to the negotiation of
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/25/britain-oil-dash-somalia> oil
company deals with the Somali government and exploitation of loopholes in an
arms embargo are deeply worrying,” she added.
The UN monitoring group on Somalia and Eritrea, which monitors compliance
with UN sanctions, submitted its report to the UN security council in
October. It said army weapons and ammunition were still being diverted to
open markets despite government pledges to act against this.
The report’s authors accused Musa Haji Mohamed Ganjab, a man they said was
an adviser to the president, of being involved in arms deals with the
Islamist insurgency group al-Shabaab.
Reuters
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/17/uk-somalia-arms-un-idUKKCN0I627320
141017> reported that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had denied that Ganjab
had ever been an adviser, and said nobody close to him had been involved in
diverting government weapons. Ganjab, a Somali-Canadian businessman, also
denied the allegations.
However, the allegations cast fresh doubt on
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/16/somalia-president-power-assass
ination-attempt> Mohamud, a professor and activist who was sworn in as
president in September 2012.
The report’s authors said: “Underlying corruption as a system of governance
has not yet fundamentally changed and, in some cases, has arguably worsened.
The monitoring group has consistently found patterns of misappropriation,
with diversion rates of between 70 and 80%. The indications are that
diverted funds are used for partisan agendas that constitute threats to
peace and security.”
Foreign donors, led by Britain, have pledged large amounts of money to
rebuild Somalia. The
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-somalia-arms-un-idUSBRE92514A2
0130306> security council agreed to ease a decades-old arms embargo in March
2013, despite some members’ concerns.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office (FCO) said: “The security council has
tightened the compliance requirements of the partial suspension of the arms
embargo and we continue to press the federal government to improve its
compliance with these and its own weapons management policy. We are also
looking into how we can support the government in strengthening its
compliance.
“The partial suspension is designed to allow the government to obtain the
equipment needed to develop the national security forces, which are critical
for Somalia’s long-term security.”
Potentially more damaging to the British government are allegations in the
UN report that a London-based oil company, <http://www.somaoilandgas.com>
Soma Oil & Gas, signed a deal with the Somali government in August 2013 to
conduct seismic surveys.
“The contract has never been made public, nor was it approved by the federal
parliament of Somalia although it was ratified by the council of ministers,”
the monitoring group said.
In return for gathering data, Soma Oil & Gas would receive the right to
apply for up to 12 oil licences, covering a maximum of 60,000 square
kilometres.
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/24/somalia-oil-idUKL6N0SI3QV20141024>
Soma Oil has told Reuters “the broad terms” of the deal were made public.
The company said it had invested about $37m in a programme to gather and
digitalise old seismic information and collect new offshore data.
Lucas said the monitoring group had called for a freeze on all new oil and
gas deals until appropriate constitutional, legislative, fiscal and
regulatory provisions had been agreed by the federal government and its
regional authorities. “We need to know whether that’s a position that the UK
government supports in practice, not just on paper,” she said.
Barnaby Pace, an oil campaigner for the watchdog
<http://new.globalwitness.org> Global Witness, said exploration could cause
more conflict. He said the Soma deal was “opaque”, adding: “There are
questions that need to be answered about this deal, including the role the
British government has played. Without that transparency, concerns will
linger over this deal and British policy on oil deals in Somalia.”
The FCO said Soma had received no preferential support, “nor did the British
government lobby in support of a deal. We offer all companies seeking to
work in Somalia a security briefing and political update, and this was
provided to Soma.”
In her questions, Lucas asks the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, “what
communications there have been between UK ministers or officials and the
Somali government and Somali officials regarding the Soma Oil & Gas deal”.
In a question addressed to the international development secretary, Justine
Greening, she asks if any steps will be taken to discourage new oil deals in
Somalia.
The FCO spokesman said: “The UK supports responsible investment in Somalia
and, in line with Somalia’s wishes, we are keen for the federal government
to be able to use Somalia’s natural resources to generate much-needed
revenue so that it can deliver services for its people.
“The UK is encouraging the Somali government and the emerging federal states
to reach agreement on resource ownership and revenue-sharing – and to
develop a legal framework that both supports that agreement and reflects
best practice – before signing oil deals.”
Pace said the allegations made by the UN against the Somali government had
to be taken into account by British policymakers. “There’s a vital need to
be transparent about UK policy because the stakes for Somalis are very
high,” he said.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation
<http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/254145/icode/> warned in October that
a poor rainy season followed by severe floods in southern Somalia were
threatening harvests, leaving more than a million people in urgent need of
assistance – a rise of 20% in only six months. Another 2 million people are
experiencing food insecurity.
There had been hopes that Mohamud’s government would be able to extend its
control outside Mogadishu, helped by a military offensive by African Union
peacekeepers. However, the administration seems to be hamstrung by internal
divisions.
The Guardian has seen an email from Nicholas Kay, a British diplomat who is
the UN special representative for Somalia, to the UK ambassador to Somalia,
Neil Wigan, revealing that the prime minister, Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, had
requested a criminal investigation into
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/21/somali-presidential-palace-att
acked-mogadishu-bomb> an attack by militants on the president’s compound in
February.
In the email, Kay says Abdiweli called him to request help with a high-level
criminal investigation to see whether al-Shabaab had received “inside
support” and also to look at the diversion of weapons.
Lucas addresses this in one of her parliamentary questions to Hammond,
asking “what consideration his department has given to the proposal by the
Somali prime minister for UK assistance into an investigation into
al-Shabaab penetration into the Somali government”.
The office of the prime minister in Mogadishu declined to comment on the
request for a criminal investigation. Lucas’s parliamentary questions await
a response.
MDG : Somalia conference : PM David Cameron with Somali president, Hassan
Sheikh MohamudDavid Cameron and the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud,
arriving at the conference on Somalia, in London on 7 May 2013. Photograph:
WPA Pool/Getty Images
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)