Somalia presidential official suspended over allegations of serious human rights abuses including sexual harassment – Sources

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Somalia presidential official suspended over allegations of serious human rights abuses including sexual harassment – Sources

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) The Deputy Chief of Staff of Somalia's presidency, Villa Somalia, has been suspended on charges of serious abuse and sexual harassment of women staffers and threats to journalists, two presidential sources told Horn Obs

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PICTURED: on 8 April 2019, Mr. Abdinur, then Villa Somalia's director of communications, plotted a plan to suspend the only free ambulance service in Mogadishu – denying more than two million people in Mogadishu and suburbs access to emergency healthcare – following a secret meeting between the Aamin Ambulance administration and police officers. The perpetrators included Benadir Regional Police Commander Sadaq John, Salah Hassan Omar, a spokesman for the Benadir Regional Administration and General Sakia Hussein, the Deputy Police Chief.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) The Deputy Chief of Staff of Somalia's presidency, Villa Somalia, has been suspended on charges of serious abuse and sexual harassment of women staffers and threats to journalists, two presidential sources told Horn Observer.

Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed was informed to leave the office of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo two weeks ago as heads of departments at the Villa Somalia were notified that Mr. Abdinur’s role has been terminated until further notice.

This comes at the height of a growing political pressure facing president Farmajo, who is seeking re-election amid delays in the country's indirect election of lawmakers and attempts to extend the term of the incumbent which further exposed a number of scandals, including allegations of human rights abuses by key government and security officials.

At a recent assembly at Villa Somalia, Farmajo's election campaign team convened supporters – mostly women and youth popular on social media –who complained of abuses by Mr Abdinur, according to two senior presidential officials. It included allegations of sexual harassment, bribery, and abuse of power.

"The president has decided to suspend him over serious misconduct,” said one official working at the president’s protocol unit. "He tarnished the president's image by abusing power of office, sexually abusing women and harassing and threatening journalists.”

The first allegations of sexual harassment in Villa Somalia surfaced in December when a former Villa Somalia staffer staunchly exposed sexual harassment in the president's office and publicly demanded the president to intervene the situation. It followed a social media outcry which even attracted a derogatory online hashtag.

President Farmajo also learned that on 8 April 2019, Mr. Abdinur, then Villa Somalia’s director of communications, plotted a plan to suspend the only free ambulance service in Mogadishu – denying more than two million people in Mogadishu and suburbs access to emergency healthcare – following a secret meeting between the Aamin Ambulance administration and police officers. The perpetrators included Benadir Regional Police Commander Sadaq John, Salah Hassan Omar, a spokesman for the Benadir Regional Administration and General Sakia Hussein, the Deputy Police Chief.

Violence against local reporters is one of the gross violations that Abdinur allegedly committed with impunity, as officials told Horn Observer. On May 4, 2020, a female journalist Safa Osman was attacked in Mogadishu while reporting on the protest of displaced women whose food rations were stolen, in the Waberi district. Police and district administrators hit her on the head sending her to the hospital with critical bleeding injury. However, following Mr. Abdinur's instructions, she was pulled from the hospital and taken to the police station, where she was forced to sign a police statement that would block her from suing her attackers, as shown by a police statement seen by the Horn Observer. The details were corroborated a human rights lawyer, Abdirahman Omar who was working on female journalist’s case.

"Police officers, acting under the instructions of then Villa Somalia director of communications Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed, summoned Safiya to the Waberi police station on Tuesday May 5, and forced her sign a police letter to "withdraw the case and forgive the officers who assaulted her. That was barely 24 hours after Mr. Abdinur posted on his Facebook page that officers who attacked the journalist were arrested to lure the victim before later deleting the post from his account,” the lawyer confirms.

In May last year, Mustaqbal Media, an independent local radio, filed a lawsuit against then Director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), Mr. Fahad Yasin and his cousin Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed over a 27 April 2021 raid on Mustaqbal Media's studio in Mogadishu. The case is still pending due Yasin's influence on court officials, lawyers and Mustaqbal Media officials said.

According to documentation from the Somali Journalist Syndicate and the Somali Media Association, twelve journalists have been killed since President Farmaajo took office in February 2017. In its 2020 report entitled ‘We live in perpetual fear’, Amnesty International also documented censorship and allegations of media bribery by the Somali government. Officials at the President's Office reportedly paid monthly bribes to some media owners and directors to keep out "unfavorable" reporting. Those who refused bribes were threatened and forced into exile.

Journalists and activists say the Farmajo administration uses al-Shabab as a scapegoat while politicians and other influential people pay private guns-for-hire to suppress what they believe needs to stay hidden. In a complex climate where anyone could be the killer, perpetrators go free, but facts remain bound.

The move to suspend president’s chief of staff has been hailed by the local press freedom. The Secretary-General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate, Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, says "this step is just a drop in the ocean,” but praised the decision to hold this official and others accountable for possible crimes against journalists in Somalia.

"Officials working in the President's Office have been the source of a number of gross human rights violations. These individuals have in the past threatened journalists, attacked them physically and online. Suspending Abdinur is one step to accountability and can lead to end the impunity. We ask authorities to investigate the crimes he has committed against journalists in the last five years and bring him to justice," Mr Mumin told Horn Observer.

Much worse, as Mr. Mumin describes, perpetrators of crimes against journalists and other human rights abuses tend to leave the country and disappear in peaceful countries in Europe, United States and Asia, leaving victims with little hope of justice.

"Such officials must not flee the country. They must be held accountable for justice to prevail,” he adds.

Abdinur Mohamed Ahmed did not respond to requests for comment on this matter. The Office of the Attorney General also did not reply.