Monday June 2, 2025
Mogadishu (HOL) — Former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has endorsed the upcoming National Consultation Forum announced by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud but urged full participation from federal member states and a reversal of what he described as damaging unilateral decisions.
In a statement issued Monday, Farmaajo said the forum—set to begin June 15 in Mogadishu—must include Puntland and Jubbaland, two federal member states that have long accused the central government of political exclusion and have withdrawn from past consultations.
“I welcome the timeline for the national consultative dialogue proposed by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud concerning critical national issues, particularly elections, security, and the Constitution,” Farmaajo said. “But for it to bear fruit, it must include all state leaders—especially Puntland and Jubbaland.”
President Mohamud formally announced the forum over the weekend following weeks of private consultations. The event is intended to build a national consensus around five priority areas: counterterrorism, democratization, constitutional finalization, national unity, and reconciliation. A technical committee led by Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Hassan Macalin Mahmoud has been tasked with organizing the conference.
Farmaajo warned that previous unilateral steps by the current administration—including the dissolution of the National Consultative Forum, implementation of incomplete electoral laws, and the abandonment of the legal framework used in the 2022 elections—have deepened mistrust among stakeholders and weakened federal-state cooperation.
His remarks align closely with the Somali Salvation Forum, an opposition coalition chaired by former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The group has welcomed the initiative but laid out conditions for participation, including a clearly defined agenda, inclusion of all federal and opposition leaders, and a commitment to one-person, one-vote elections rooted in the 2012 provisional constitution and electoral laws passed by the 9th and 10th parliaments.
The Forum has also condemned what it describes as politically motivated alignment between the federal government and federal member states with expired mandates—specifically in Galmudug, Hirshabelle, and Southwest. It warned that these actions, along with federal interference in the Gedo region and restrictions on Jubbaland-administered areas, could destabilize the country’s fragile federal arrangement.
Farmaajo echoed those concerns, stating that efforts to engineer electoral outcomes through executive fiat threaten the country’s hard-won federal model and risk eroding the legitimacy of state-building institutions.
