The long-awaited cabinet’s announcement last week, since the selection of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud last May, left the Somali public reeling, but was greeted by representatives of Western nations in Somalia.
Mukhtar Robow, former Al-Shabab deputy leader and spokesman who has been detained for the last four years, has been appointed Somalia’s Endowments and Religious Affairs Minister.
The appointment baffled many as he was directly responsible for hundreds of deaths in Somalia. His toll could be higher if you add the trail of death, destruction and displacement left by the hundreds of militants he recruited and trained as an incendiary Al-Shabab preacher.
A career terrorist
Mukhtar Robow, also known as Abu Mansur, was born in October 10, 1969 in Hudur, southern Somalia. He said he had travelled to Afghanistan at a young age to be trained as a jihadist and to meet Usama Bin Laden.
In May 2011, he said in a speech to his followers, he was part of a group of Somalis who received a firearm training in Afghan mountains. He added that the only time in his life he cried of happiness is when he met Usama Bin Laden.
Freshly arrived from Afghanistan, he joined the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) who took over Mogadishu on summer 2006 from CIA-funded Warlords Alliance. He was appointed as the Deputy Defence Secretary in the ICU before the CIA-funded Ethiopian Invasion in December 2006.
From 2007 to 2012, Abu Mansur held different position within the radical Al-Shabab militia that split from the now disbanded ICU. He was one of its co-founder and became the spokesperson of the insurgent group for his fiery speeches and charismatic appeal. He moved up to be the Deputy Chief.
A ruthless murderer
Robow, Abu Mansur, was known to be ruthlessly aggressive and adept at the take-no-prisoners style of leadership. In a recording speech, he urged his men not to leave anyone alive in a battle between the takfiri group and government troops he called apostates.
He was responsible for a series of incredibly violent attacks on government officials, security personnel and civilians. In his list of crimes, the Shamo Hotel bombing will go down in history as the most heinous crime.
On December 3, 2009, an Al-Shabab militant blew himself up during a medical school graduation ceremony killing more than 25 future doctors, 4 ministers, journalists, parents and other guests and have left hundreds scarred for life. Later, he shamelessly declared, “Thank God we eliminated the infidels”, referring to the innocent civilians’ death.
Western connection to Robow
Robow was regularly interviewed by the BBC and VOA reporters. In one of these frequent reports, he showcased his 12 year-old son with an AK-47 and told how much he was proud of him. His son would later die in a battle against the government forces.
The British secret service approached Robow while he was still an Al-Shabab operative. It is not clear whether the then chief of the terror group Ahmed Abdi Godane was tipped about Robow’s connection to foreign intelligence or he grew suspicious of Robow’s behaviour. Still, Robow was marked for execution over a “disagreement” – as some say – on the direction of the group.
In 2013, intelligence services operating in Somalia facilitated his escape with his a small group of loyalists and urged the Somali government to pardon him in exchange for his “defection” and denunciation of Al-Shabab. He is said to have played a key role in the hunt and death of his former boss Godane by a missile launched from an American drone in 2014.
Repurposing an unapologetic mass killer
Once his rival eliminated, Robow would eventually return in his native region of Bakool and try to use the little sympathetic figures, mostly drawn from clan members, to recapture the leadership of Al-Shabab.
After yet another failure, foreign intelligence agencies he frequently met in Somalia and in Kenya groomed him to take over the Southwest State and create a paramilitary force similar to the failed US brainchild in Colombia.
On June 23, 2017, the United States removed Robow from its most wanted list exactly five years after a US$5 million bounty was placed for information leading to his capture.
Right after, he was introduced to the British Ambassador David Concar to Somalia who urged him to run for President of the Southwest Regional State where he was from and where he had many ideological and clan supporters. The United Arab Emirates would offered to finance his electoral campaign.
Western powers great plans for Somalia rejected
The Somali government did not welcome this foreign imposition of Robow. At no time has the man renounced his old ideology since being kicked out of the group. He showed no remorse for the killings and terror he unleashed. Moreover, the idea of parading with him would not please a population scarred by the terror he unleashed on them.
Former President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo had an uncompromising progressive agenda. He perceived Robow as a Trojan horse wielded by foreign hands hell-bent on dividing the country into “Banana Republics” autonomous from the central government and ruled by local despots.
A plan that Westerners have already implemented in Jubaland, Puntland and Somaliland and want to replicate in the rest of Somalia.
For this reason, the Federal Government secured the support of Ethiopia in 2018 and thwarted British plans to install Robow as President of Southwest State. With their “guy” in charge of this regional state, the former colonial power would have had unfettered access to the oil blocks off the coast of Barawe and Somalia’s breadbasket.
The Haysom Fiasco
So in 2018, the Federal Somali government, supported by Ethiopian troops, stopped the American and British push for Robow’s candidacy to the Southwest State presidency. The attempt to arrest him resulted in 15 death after he refused to surrender and ordered his militia to prevent the operation.
Recently appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, Nicholas Haysom, who has met Robow many times before, railed against his arrest and criticized the government. His characterization of the government’s action as illegal, his order to release Robow and let him stand in regional elections was seen as blatant interference.
Haysom, a white South-African lawyer, was close to the British who lobbied for his nomination to this position a year earlier. However, the government did not take lightly that Haysom overstepped his diplomatic duties. On January 2, 2019, Somalia expelled the UN envoy in an unprecedented move.
From that day on, the UK and the US worked to unseat President Farmajo, smearing him in the media and funding the opposition. They ensured the return of his predecessor, the more docile current President Mohamud.
The time to relaunch the Robow option has returned
Until the day of his appointment, Robow was imprisoned at NISA headquarters and then placed under house arrest. He was able to have his family with him, had fitness equipment, and even completed a master’s degree online. The UK has ensured that the government gives him a preferential treatment pending a change in leadership.
It has been reported that one of the reasons why Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre delayed his cabinet announcement is that he did not want Robow and other questionable individuals, including but not limited to Al-Shabab operatives and warlords, in his cabinet.
But he received undue pressure from a fraudulently elected president in the Green Zone of Halane, Mogadishu, and indebted to the machinations of foreign diplomats who got him selected.
Kate Foster, the British ambassador, had personally met the Prime Minister a few weeks earlier to give him her advice and after the announcement of the new cabinet, congratulated him and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on the appointment.
Sidelining the Somali public
Adding insult to injury, he was given the Endowment and Religious Affairs portfolio where he will have a say on religious duties and directions. Many have rightly called this decision a scandal because it has nothing to do with a theologian. There is also the fear that he mainstreams his twisted and radical interpretation of Islam.
Robow recently confirmed, which many suspected, that his current appointment would be temporary. Indeed, his ministerial position would serve as a springboard to take over the Southwest State presidency from Abdi-Aziz Laftagareen. This in itself announces instability in this region.
For the Somali public, already appalled by the way US and UK diplomats micromanaged the last election, the imposition of Robow demonstrates a blatant disregard for their security, their rights and the future of their country. Now, they are preparing for more violence inside Somalia and on the border with Ethiopia.
Now Robow’s nomination has been approved amid controversy by the Somalia’s parliament. Yet, true to his extreme deep conviction, during the swearing in, he remained silent and expressionless, as he does not subscribe to a system of democratic governance he once called apostasy.
