Somalia: Puntland’s Break with the T.F.G. and the International Crisis Group’s Draft Repor

Galkaio Agreement

A draft, provided by a closed source, of a major report on Somalia being prepared for publication by the International Crisis Group (I.C.G.) comments on the deepening political-territorial fragmentation of the country and makes the consequent judgment, in light of the conjuncture of actors involved in its conflicts, that “Somalia” has been brought into question as a possible organized political entity.

The report is concentrated on the failure of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) to unify the country, and particularly on the ineffectiveness of T.F.G. president Sh. Sharif Sh. Ahmad, and has the aim of advocating the abandonment of the T.F.G. by stakeholders and their adoption of a decentralizing strategy. As is often the case, a major think tank has expressed the policy shift of (Western great-power) actors – in this case, an extension of Washington’s  “dual-track” policy toward Somalia, which, closed sources report, is being followed by the Europeans. The I.C.G. report backs up the policy shift by discrediting the T.F.G. and Sh. Sharif, opening the way to stakeholders dealing directly with regional and local political organizations. Yet the authors of the report are aware that unmanaged decentralization that hyper-Balkanizes Somali territories would create dangerous instability for stakeholders. Therefore the I.C.G. wants somehow to hold on to “Somalia.”
Read More