MOGADISHU, Somalia – The Somali government has reportedly blacklisted several lawmakers from Jubaland, accusing them of attempting to disrupt Wednesday’s parliamentary session and obstruct the approval of a controversial election commission.
Federal MP Hassan Abdi Ismail, along with others, is now facing travel restrictions, as security authorities at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu have received their names and photos, preventing them from leaving the capital.
Ismail, a firebrand MP known as Hassan Firimbi for using whistles when denied the opportunity to express his constitutional rights, has been accused of physically assaulting a police officer during the parliamentary session.
Many government supporters, considering Ismail’s actions unacceptable, have called for legal action to be taken, while some have demanded the removal of his parliamentary immunity so he can be arrested and brought to trial.
What made the case even bigger for Hassan Firimbi was when his fellow lawmakers and Somalia’s police chief, Asad Osman Diano, visited the hospital where the officer was being treated for facial bruises. Photos of the officer and the visiting officials have since circulated on social media.
Critics argue that the government is portraying him as a criminal because he is an opposition lawmaker from Jubaland, a regional member state in Somalia that has a political conflict with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre over Monday’s indirect election.
They also claim that he is being targeted for supporting Monday’s re-election of President Ahmed Madobe, an election that both Mohamud and Barre rejected, arguing it didn’t align with Somalia’s new one-person, one-vote electoral system.
Speaking to journalists, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, an opposition leader, confirmed that the government had imposed a travel ban on several lawmakers, including Hassan Firimbi, and had sent a list of names and photos to airport security to block their departure from Mogadishu.
Tensions have been rising since Monday, when President Mohamud’s government declared Madobe’s re-election invalid. In response, the government deployed hundreds of soldiers to the Lower Jubba region to remove him from office. Madobe, however, sees his re-election as constitutional and has sent his own military units to the region to block the incoming troops, viewing them as a threat to his leadership.
