Hargeysa, Somaliland, January 24, 2015 (SL Times) – One unmistakable characteristic of the current Somaliland government is that it has given rise to a new group of people who through corruption involving fraudulent contracts, kickbacks, bribes, shady oil deals and other illicit activities, have become very wealthy, some even millionaires.
Somalilanders know very well some of the key figures in this group such as the president’s wife, Amina Sheikh Muhammad Jirde (Amina Weris), his son in law Bashe Awil and the minister of oil and minerals, Hussein Abdi Duale (a.k.a “Mucjisada maal urursiga” or “The Miracle of corruption”). But there are several other, lesser known members of this network.
Because of their open and shameless looting of the public purse, this network has been the object of much discussions whether in conversations or in the pages of Somaliland’s media (for a recent commentary on this topic, see
There are two schools of thought on the rise of this new group. One schools says Ahmed Sillanyo and his family came to the presidency with a plan to enrich themselves as quickly as possible. Another school of thought says that it happened because Ahmed Sillanyo is too old and does not have the capacity to monitor what his family members and hangers-on are doing to the country’s resources.
Whichever the case might be, there is no doubt that this sleazy network should be held accountable for its crimes before they totally bankrupt the country.
