In the past few days, tension has been witnessed in the Somalia’s capital Mogadishu following Farmajo’s backdoor extend his term. Protests, roadblocks, troops movements and opposition politicians and leaders’ movements have been witnessed, a common feature following an illegal extension of the outgoing president Mohamed Farmajo’s term.
The building tensions in the capital and pressure from the international community has seen the embattled Farmajo travel to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday for the first time since his term was illegally extended by Parliament. His visit has been viewed as a move aimed at seeking continental support amid growing outrage in his country and threats from the western donors.
Villa Somalia said that Farmajo’s visit to DRC was a ‘working visit’ but this is far from the truth. Political analysts view that the strategic DRC visit as aimed at seeking support for his illegitimate stay in office. Strategically, Farmajo picked the DRC as his first stop of call where he very highly likely appealed for support from DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi who is the current chairman of the African Union (AU).
Mogadishu has been working to see Farmajo’s mandate is extended at the expense and wish of the Somali people. Now it’s clear the outgoing President was out on a mission to win support of the AU. The EU, US and the regional bloc IGAD has stood ground against term extension and calling on talks between stakeholders to break the current stalemate to resume.
Farmajo left Mogadishu as demonstrations broke out in various parts of the capital city and country against his decision not to cede power despite his mandate expiring on February 8.
