Credit: gurtong.net /  Nicholas Haysom , Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia.

By Gary Raynaldo  DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The Somali government on Tuesday declared United Nations special representative Nicholas Haysom persona non grata  for “violating protocols” and “deliberately interfering” in the internal affairs of the Horn of Africa country.

“The UN special envoy to Somalia is not wanted here and he will no longer work here,” according to a statement by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. “He was deliberately embroiled in the affairs of the state, violating diplomatic norms.”

Somalia Foreign Affairs Ministry via Twitter. 

The action by Somalia reportedly came after the UN envoy asked clarification from the government on whether UN-supported forces were involved in the shooting of demonstrators in the southern city of Baidoa last month. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 12 September 2018 the appointment of Haysom, 66,  of South Africa as his Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia.  Haysom , a lawyer with a long international career with a focus on democratic governance, constitutional and electoral reforms, reconciliation and peace processes, was Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, a position he has held since 2016, prior to the Somalia posting.  Haysom additionally served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2014 to 2016, and as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan from 2012 to 2014

Haysom had raised concern about the killing of protesters allied with ex-militant Islamist Mukhtar Robow, the BBC reported.   Security forces were allegedly involved in the deaths of about 15 of the protesters and the detention of about 300 people, the UN says, BBC reports. 

 A U.N. spokesman said they were not commenting now, and Haysom did not immediately respond, ABC news. Instead, Haysom and the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general late Tuesday issued statements strongly condemning a mortar attack that hit the main U.N. compound in Mogadishu earlier in the day.

Somalia Drenched In Blood From Multiple Deadly Terror Attacks 

Somalians call it their own “9-11”.  Two truck bombs blasted the capital city of Mogadishu on Oct. 14, 2017, reports npr.org.   The first detonated outside a hotel at a busy junction lined with restaurants and government offices. A fuel tanker next to the bomb greatly increased the denotation’s intensity, burning many bodies beyond recognition and destroying entire buildings. The second blast struck the district of Medina just two hours later.  According to The Zobe Rescue Committee, created by the Somali government in the wake of the attack,  some 512 people were killed, 312 were wounded, making it Somalia’s deadliest terrorist attack ever. 

Somalia:  “the most dangerous place in the world.”  

Approximately 500,000 people are said to have been killed inSomalia since the start of the civil war in 1991.   In 1991, Somalia was described by the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance as “the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.” –The Center For Justice and Accountability.  In 2009, Foreign Policy Magazine called it “the most dangerous place in the world.”

At least 53 persons were killed when suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a hotel last November 2018 in the Somalia capital city Mogadishu. Attacks were reported on the popular Sahafi Hotel, near the country’s criminal investigations department as two car bombs followed by a scooter bomb exploded in the street outside the hotel.

UN Envoy’s Expulsion Comes Less Than One Month After U.S. Re-established ‘Permanent Diplomatic Presence’ In Conflict-Strife Somalia 

Credit: Wikipedia Public Domain /  Crew of Super 64 a month before the Battle of Mogadishu 1993.  From left: Winn Mahuron, Tommy Field, Bill Cleveland, Ray Frank and Mike Durant.

Last month,  the U.S. re-established a “permanent diplomatic presence” in Somalia for the first time in nearly three decades.  “On December 2, for the first time since the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu on January 5, 1991, the United States reestablished a permanent diplomatic presence in Somalia,” the State Department said in a statement.

The U.S. closed its Somalia embassy in January 1991 as the country collapsed into civil war, with the military airlifting out the ambassador and others.  The renewed diplomatic presence in Somalia comes just after the 25-year-anniversary of the  infamous Battle of Mogadishu on Oct. 3-4, 1993, in Somalia.  Twenty five years ago U.S. troops engaged in what has been described as one of the most intense urban combat since Vietnam with heavy casualties reported.  ‘Black Hawk Down’: The sight of dead US soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu was a turning point in one of the United States’ most high-profile interventions in Africa, the BBC.    The images, broadcast around the world, outraged many.  In October 1993, elite American troops launched a disastrous raid in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Their aim was to capture key allies of the powerful Somali warlord, Gen Mohamed Farah Aideed. But US forces met fierce resistance from Aideed’s militia.  Two US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down.