(Corrupt police and Al-Shabab)
Afgoye, one of the most fertile areas of Somalia, and its people are between a rock and a hard place situation effected by one-sub-clan militia/police unit that claim the legitimacy of the state on one side and ruthless terrorists that profess a religious mandate on the other.
For a long time, former junior warlord known as Commander Nuur Xayir led a notorious police unit (Rescue Unit) located in Afgoye whose members are exclusively from his own sub clan Reer Hilowle, Sacad, Habar Gidir who hail from Galkacyo, Galmudug. They are there as pretext of fighting terrorism. For that reason, they are funded by the International Community through Federal Government of Somalia.
Furthermore, the Commander set up over a dozen Isbaaro (illegal check Points) in and around Afgoye where he collects money – money that is badly needed for development projects like schools, disasters (floods and droughts) management and hospitals – for himself and his protectors.
His protectors are former warlords who are currently members of the current government (a senator and a minister) hailing from the same sub clan. Top leaders of the government both Federal and Southwest State (executive and legislative branches) are turning blind eye of what this tribal “police” unit is doing.
The commander usurped all the powers of the successive governors of Lower Shabelle region and mayors of Afgoye and effectively rendered them useless. In exchange they receive an insignificant daily stipend from the thousands of dollars he receives daily from the illegal check points in and around the town. The rest go to his pocket and his protectors’ as his one-sub-clan special unit is fully funded by the government.
Obviously, this unit was not created for protecting the people of Afgoye as the targets of their extortion are the people and their businesses. It is a perfect criminal gang disguised as a police and actually paid by the government.
The commander and his unit rule, if that can be said, the main roads – by setting up illegal check points – during the daytime where they mainly collect huge sums of money and go back to their camps. The evenings belong to the terrorists.
Terrorists, bereft of Islamic manners but disguising themselves in religious garments, come to life in the evenings and do what they are good at – terrorise the people.
They collect their extortion money, calling it Zakawat (obligatory charity payments under Islamic law), from the people and they ruthlessly kill anyone they either suspect or know is knowledgeable about their scheme.
People in Afgoye believe that there is a tacit agreement between those two parties and they are in concert to rob them their resources. This police unit lack the public support and cooperation needed for their legitimacy and failed their sole task of fighting terrorists.
As part of the new government initiative to fight the terrorists this police unit must be disbanded and replaced with a legitimate police force that is recruited from local youth. The new force will be able to build the necessary trust between the police and the community that is needed to fight the terrorists and will put to stop the thousands of dollars that Afgoye is bleeding daily. We are suggesting this model of policing where officers come from local youth is the only way to fight terrorists effectively and should be established throughout the Lower Shabelle region.
This is not going to happen unless the donors step up and do proper reckoning of how every penny of their money is spent. In cases like this, it is not enough to monitor that every individual police officer is paid directly, what is needed is to seek the input of the community regarding the effectiveness of every police unit and evaluate every unit’s commitment of protecting and serving the community. To that effect, it is necessary for the donors to have direct communications with the communities to make sure that the expected outcome of the donations – improving safety, peace, security, justice and rule of law – are achieved. The community feedback must be considered and made an integral part of the assessment of the officers and commanders for promotions.
All the Somalis and Afgoye Diaspora group, specifically those in Canada, UK, EU, and US where most of the donations come from, should continue asking their representatives to do something about this gross mismanagement of their funds and possible human rights abuses committed with their donations by this controversial police unit led by a rogue commander who was a former warlord and is protected by other former warlords.
Afgoye Diaspora Group