Somalia’s government took the unusually drastic decision of expelling the United Nations’ most senior official in the country late Tuesday night after he questioned the detention of a former al-Shabab leader contesting regional elections.
Nicholas Haysom, a South African, had only served a few months as the special rapporteur to the U.N.’s secretary general, Antonio Guterres. A statement from Somalia’s Foreign Ministry declared him a “persona non grata” and ordered him to leave the country.
“The decision came after the highest U.N. diplomat in Somalia violated the agency’s standards and the international diplomatic norms by intervening the national sovereignty of Somalia,” according to a statement published by state-owned media.
His expulsion comes amid a political crisis that has pitted the governments of Somalia’s semiautonomous regions against the federal government based in the capital, Mogadishu. The regional governments are in the process of holding elections.
In the South West state, the only one that has held its election so far, the favorite candidate to win the top leadership position was Mukhtar Robow, who had served as the deputy leader of the Islamist group al-Shabab for many years before defecting in 2017. Robow was barred by the federal government from running, ostensibly for his failure to formally repudiate al-Shabab.
Robow’s surrender was originally seen as a major win for the government, which is trying to encourage such defections, but his running for office was clearly not what authorities had in mind.
He was then arrested by Somali police days before the election. Subsequent rioting by his supporters in the regional capital, Baidoa, resulted in at least 15 deaths, and scores were detained by security forces. Robow was transferred to a prison run by Somalia’s intelligence service in Mogadishu.
In a letter to the federal government, Haysom criticized the crackdown and questioned the legal basis for holding Robow without charge beyond the normal 48 hours.
The letter also probed civilian deaths during the protests and said they must be “thoroughly and promptly investigated.” Haysom wrote that more than 300 people, including minors, were arrested following the demonstrations in Baidoa.
A spokesman for the U.N.’s political office in Mogadishu said official comment was forthcoming.
The United States is a close backer of Somalia’s federal government and has largely refrained from criticizing it, though it did sign on to a letter expressing concern over Robow’s arrest and the subsequent crackdown.
There are 500 U.S. troops in the country, mostly Special Operations forces, mandated with training Somali soldiers. The United States also carries out frequent airstrikes again al-Shabab, most recently in December, killing 62 fighters.
