Following Somalia’s state collapse in 1991, the United Arab Emirates was among the first countries that lent a helping hand to Somalia amidst devastating drought and recurrent conflicts.
UAE provided multifaceted assistance to Somalia which is worth hundreds of millions of US Dollars under humanitarian and deployment projects.
The humanitarian aspect, which was implemented by the UAE Red Crescent was long-run by a man called Sharif Abdalla who is currently a member of Somalia’s Lower House parliament and has over the last two decades implemented ghost projects with UAE’s aid.
Sharif Mohamed Abdalla was assigned to implement a multifaced project that aimed to build more than a hundred Madrasas for Quran and Islamic teaching and other developmental services including higher education schools, universities dig water wells that would provide clean and free water to millions, build dozens of mosques and train religious clerics that would breach against extremism ideologies, and build dozens of health centers that would provide free medical services to thousands of Somalis.
In mid-2012, UAE attempted to signify its support for Somalia, but MP Sharif Abdalla failed to report a single tangible project hence squandering development and humanitarian projects worth 100s of millions of US Dollars.
Nonetheless, the funds for these projects were mismanaged by the hands of the trusted charity foundation pioneered by MP Sharif Abdalla and unfairly distributed among the Al-Islah political class, a rogue Islamist religious group that has ties with the controversial Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
In a bid to evade accountability, MP Sharif Abdalla rushed to grab a parliamentarian seat from the Southwest State of Somalia, a constituency where most of the mismanaged projects were intended to reach.
On the contrary, Somalia’s constitution doesn’t allow the lawmakers privileges or impunity from holding them accountable for their irregularities or crimes against the law.
Further more, MP Sharif Abdalla was recently running for the speakership of Somalia’s Lower House parliament after he signed a political deal with the former Prez of Somalia, Mohamed Farmajo, who was backed by the government of Qatar, a nemesis of the UAE in the Gulf States.
The former regime led by Farmajo was famous for its fierce diplomacy against the UAE following the expulsion of the UAE support missions in Somalia.
This has led to drawbacks to the humanitarian and development projects initiated by the UAE.
Among the initiatives was the development of Somalia’s security sector as the UAE was at that time implementing a multi-million dollar project that was supporting thousands of Somali National Army (SNA).
The project was providing logistical, financial, and mentorship to SNA in a bid to ensure their capabilities to eradicate Al-Shabab, an Al-Qaeda, ISIS and affiliate groups.
The project would potentially be feasible by now if it had not been expelled the regime and the question of Al-Shabab would’ve been a history but unfortunately it falls among the squandered yet potential UAE support to Somalia.
