Federal officials within Somalia’s government are reportedly considering ordering the country’s key counterterrorism agencies to impose a total financial and travel sanctions on the ousted South West State President Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen and his allies.
Somali Stream has learned that the measures would include freezing Laftagareen’s personal assets and bank accounts, as well as those belonging to entities associated with his administration. Somali Stream has also learned that the names of politicians and other key functionaries linked to Laftagareen’s camp are also being availed to immigration authorities, with clear and express instructions to restrict their movement and suspend their travel documents, including valid passports in their possession. The government agencies that have thus received the directive from senior federal government officials include the Ministries of Finance and Security, the national police service, the Immigration and Citizenship Agency, and the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Committee (NAMIC).
The proposed restrictions on the travel and assets of Abdiaziz Laftagareen and acolytes come as armed clashes between the two sides have reached the highest tipping point. A series of attacks by forces loyal to Laftagareen tried to retake the city of Baidoa has led both sides to deploy, to the fullest, all of their political and military influence. On Sept. 3, former lawmaker and military commander Mahad Abdirahman, a relative of Laftagareen, was targeted in an airstrike in the town of Dolow. The attack was attributed to senior officials in Somalia’s federal government, although the government denies any involvement.
The dispute over South West State’s leadership has become one of the most sensitive political issues in Somalia at a time when the confrontation has begun to reshape the country’s traditional political practice of competing for influence through local & parliamentary influence swaying. If the sanctions are ultimately imposed, the federal government would also be using powers solely intended for counterterrorism purposes against a political figure.