Gen Morgan And the Somali Dilemma

The Nation (Nairobi)
October 3, 2004


Sunday Nation Writer
Nairobi

Kenya had a dramatic and unexpected visitor last week. Gen Mohammed Hersi alias "Morgan", one of Somalia's enduring warlords, abruptly materialised in Nairobi.

With a bald and shiny pate of a head and a long, luxuriant beard (like an Old Testament prophet), he cut a fascinating figure and his picture was splashed all over the newspapers.

During a press conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel on Monday, Gen Morgan declared he was ready to join the Somali peace process, from which he had absented himself even as it made a major breakthrough with the inauguration of a Somali Parliament at Mbagathi, Nairobi, several weeks ago.

The Igad Facilitation Committee and diplomats involved in the Somali peace process are happy with the about-turn. By roping in most of the warlords, they see better chances of a final peace.

Of course, Gen Morgan was not entirely forthright in what he wanted to tell the world. His sudden enthusiasm for the peace process came about after he suffered a crushing defeat in his South Somalia theatre of operations. Diplomats well versed in Somali politics told the Sunday Nation that he had earlier attacked and tried to capture Kismayu.

The attack did not go very well for him, and he was routed by a rival group of militias known as the Juba Valley Alliance, which is headed by the warlord Col Barre Hirale. Gen Morgan fled to Kenya, crossing the border to Garissa from where he was flown by Kenyan authorities to Nairobi.

Gen Morgan now claims he never abandoned the peace process and that he had to go back home to deal with "pressing matters" affecting his clansmen in South Somalia.

Actually, he was around at the launch of the Mbagathi talks but left early. According to diplomatic sources, one of the reasons he had to leave was a dispute over a large bill incurred at the Hilton Hotel. Unable to settle the debt, he was deprived of his passport by Kenyan authorities.

Gen Morgan would always claim he had been denied the means to rejoin the Mbagathi talks. However, the Facilitation Committee all along sought to bring him in, believing it was imperative that all the warlords be part of the process.

Somali watchers count Gen Morgan as one of the "twenty or so" most important warlords in the lawless country. In the complex web of alliances that is Somalia, he was part of the group terming itself the Somali Reconciliation and Reconstruction Committee, which includes the self-declared "autonomous" region of Puntland and its self-styled "President" Abdullahi Yusuf.

A diplomat who has been following the Somali talks acknowledged there were "rumours" of Gen Morgan enjoying the support of Ethiopia "at the political level". Whether this actually translated to covert military backing is unclear.

Upon arrival in Kenya, Gen Morgan promptly sought to link his enemies to Al-Itihad, an Islamic group which the Americans have linked to Al-Qaeda. However, many locally-based Somalis are not convinced.

Somalia | Politics | |