Thursday, June 14, 2012

Somalia must reclaim control over airspace and waters: UN may owe millions in unaccounted for air navigation charges – By Abdisalam Warsame Hassan and Awet T. Weldemichael




Since they  took office, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali  and Former prime minister  Mohamed Abdullahi (Farmaajo) have  taken the transfer of sovereignty over Somalia’s airspace (and waters) as  their top top priority.

Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali  pick up where  His Former Boss Former Prime minister  Mohamed Abdullahi (Farmaajo) left off :

For nearly two decades, a small United Nations body has managed Somalia’s airspace without Somali involvement and international oversight. Sources close to that office reveal that an internal report documented its 19 years of mismanagement, financial opacity and failure in mandate fulfilment that has bewildered the United Nations civil aviation authority.

In 1993 the United Nations Developments Program (UNDP) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) jointly established a Technical Assistance Project to provide basic services to air transport operations through and within the airspace of Somalia. Upon its evacuation from Somalia in 1995, a temporary operational station was established in Nairobi. In May 1996, ICAO launched a Civil Aviation Caretaker Authority for Somalia (CACAS) to manage the country’s airspace and provide basic aviation services. Seven years later in December 2003, another body replaced CACAS but with little substantive difference in its mandate or its shortcomings.

Beyond providing air traffic services to flights within and through the airspace of Somalia, these successive United Nations bodies failed in the fulfilment of the rest of their mandate: i) provision of technical and operational assistance at designated airports and to local administrations in Somalia; ii) establishment and operation of a nucleus civil aviation administration for the functioning of CACAS; iii) formulation and implementation of training program for national personnel; and iv) formulation of procedures and draft regulations required for the operation and maintenance of civil aviation activities.

According to sources in Kenya and Somalia, the said report by an ICAO technical assessment team also highlighted an absence of financial accountability in the management of Somalia’s airspace. All the successive bodies were mandated to collect air navigation fees from all flights that enter Somalia’s airspace and use those funds to cover the operational costs of fulfilling their tasks. While ICAO is responsible for maintaining the trust fund account set up in 1994 for the deposit of revenues collected from these air navigation charges, UNDP has the authority to disburse those funds.

Between 80 and 100 regular flights enter Somalia’s airspace daily. Each of these flights is liable to paying an estimated navigation fee of $275 per entry. Everything remaining constant between 1993 and 2011, a conservative estimate of total revenue (collected or not) thus exceeds $150 million. The self-supporting project currently generates an average of $9 to $10 Million a year. There has not been a full, transparent accounting of how that money has been and is being managed nor where it may be.

A proven method of preparing nationals of war torn countries for technical or other professional positions has been for international projects (be it peacekeeping or otherwise) to hire them in such a capacity that knowledge and skills are transferred. In Somalia, however, the successive United Nations aviation authorities have systematically avoided hiring qualified Somali professionals much less to train a core group that can take over in due course.

Operated by Nairobi-based international staff (including Kenyans), CACAS hires Somalis as second-class associates. Mostly living in Kenya on student visas, the Somali personnel are hired at lower levels with limited compensation packages, their qualifications and performance notwithstanding.

To make matters even worse, relevant UN bodies have been reluctant to transfer CACAS’s authority over to Somalia’s internationally recognized Transitional Federal Governments (TFGs). Mogadishu’s repeated requests went unanswered until 2010. The Prime Minister at the time Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke submitted TFG’s complaints to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who requested the ICAO General Secretary to look into the matter. That process culminated in the formation of a Somali Steering Committee composed of Somali (TFG, Somaliland and Puntland), ICAO and UNDP representatives.

This Steering Committee replaced the idle Management Advisory Board in order to guide the transfer of CACAS to Somali sovereignty. Its other mandates include setting objectives and priorities for levels of service, for infrastructural development, for Somali manpower development and target dates for replacement of non-Somali staff with Somali nationals. It is also expected to review the annual work plan for the project and the annual budget, to ensure that project makes good use of assets, to assist with resolving strategic level issues and risks, to approve or reject changes to the project with a high impact on timelines and budget, to endorse project progress reports to be shared with senior management and higher authorities, and to review and approve final project deliverables.


In spite of such a robust mandate, the Steering Committee remains neglected by all UN agencies for Somalia including ICAO and UNDP. A direct consequence of this neglect is its abject failure in meeting its stated objectives. Among many flaws, ICAO’s technical assessment team of five professionals reportedly identified CACAS’s failure in developing what in due course was expected to become Somali Civil Aviation Administration. It neither cultivated competent personnel nor put in place procedures for its regulatory roles. As a result, the assessment team reportedly determined CACAS’s inability to provide the necessary assurance that its operations are at an acceptable level of safety. Without safety oversight by other bodies, CACAS operated without quality management system.

Since he took office, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has taken the transfer of sovereignty over Somalia’s airspace (and waters) as his top priority. He has succeeded in cultivating consensus among Somali stakeholders (including Somaliland and Puntland) and has been engaging relevant United Nations officials in high-level discussions on the matter.

There is no evidence to suggest direct involvement of ICAO’s higher officials in CACAS’s failures. Rumors abound that outraged officials in Montreal are in fact quietly scrambling to amend the situation. But their sincerity will be measured by the speed with which pressing technical deficiencies and professional incompetence are rectified, and jurisdiction over the Somali airspace handed back to legitimate Somali authorities who should retain sovereign prerogatives.

Abdisalam Warsame Hassan (wardheer64@hotmail.com) is a former senior Somali diplomat, having served as Somalia’s chargé d’affaires in Germany, and designate Ambassador to Poland and then to the African Union.


Dr. Awet T. Weldemichael (awate_is@yahoo.com) is an academic at the University of Paris and University of Kentucky. Both are experts of Horn of African political and security dynamics, currently working on contemporary Somalia.

No comments:

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

About Us

The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

Blog Archive

We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa

The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.

Terror Free Somalia Foundation