AJ: Somalis had very high expectations of the government. Now there’s a lot of criticism of the government’s complacency and inability to provide what it promised. People are feeling disconnected from your government.
Ahmed: Things are changing. My ministers are engaging very closely with the people in Mogadishu. The strategy is to work very closely with the people. We are sending ministers to consult in many other areas outside Mogadishu. When it comes to providing services, we have a well-planned stabilisation programme with which we will demonstrate that the government is concerned about the needs of the people.
Many things will be said, it’s natural. We are travelling to engage with international partners because they are critical to the success we are achieving. It’s not the entire government that is travelling, you know the government is not just the president and prime minister.
AJ: A confidential UN monitor’s report warns of “systematic abuses” by Somalia’s government. It says elements in the government allowed the diversion of weapons that Somali authorities purchased after the UN Security Council eased an arms embargo on Mogadishu last year. Some of the arms may have ended up with al-Shabab. What do you say to this?
Ahmed: None of the investigators have come to talk to us but we take those allegations very seriously. We are investigating. I am not aware of any arms being diverted to clans, militias or even to al-Shabab.
AJ: Is it too early to talk about an African Union forces exit plan?
Ahmed: We plan to build security forces for Somalia, owned by Somalis. Just two weeks ago, IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development] member countries made a decision that they support the formation and the reformation of the Somali national armed forces and the rebuilding of the Somali security policy and intelligence networks. It’s part of the work plan to reform the security forces so that the Somalis can manage and own their security forces. As soon as we are able to handle the security ourselves our brothers can then go home.
AJ: But that will not be very soon.
Ahmed: It will take some time. Realistically, for a country that has been under destruction for 20 years, bringing the pieces together will take time. We are trying to bring the pieces together and we hope we will do that.
Source: Al Jazeera