Mereja.Forum

[Zmeselo]

Igad battles internal wrangles, as Horn of Africa craves for mediation

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27 2019


Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki sit in a helicopter during their visit to Gondar, northern Ethiopia, on November 9, 2018. PHOTO | EDUARDO SOTERAS | AFP

________________________________________________________

In Summary

• Normally a calm organisation focusing on Horn of Africa’s political scene, members seeking to lead Igad for the first time since its formation in 1996 are agitated.

________________________________________________________

• The spark occurred 10 days ago when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the current chairman, appointed his former Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu as the executive secretary.

________________________________________________________

• The letter from Abiy said there had been consultations with other heads on October 10 when leaders landed in Addis Ababa to witness the reopening of Unity Park.

________________________________________________________
​
By AGGREY MUTAMBO

https://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/Ig ... index.html

Services at the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad) could be crippled following a stalemate on who becomes chief executive officer and chairman of the bloc.

Normally a calm organisation focusing on Horn of Africa’s political scene, members seeking to lead Igad for the first time since its formation in 1996 are agitated.

The spark occurred 10 days ago when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the current chairman, appointed his former Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu as the executive secretary.

Workneh is supposed to take office on November 1, according to details contained in the appointment a letter.

Member states complain that the decision did not follow laid down procedures.

CONSULTATION

Igad’s eight members are Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan and Sudan.

The letter from Abiy said there had been consultations with other heads on October 10 when leaders landed in Addis Ababa to witness the reopening of Unity Park.

A day later, Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the region, largely as Igad chairman.

Igad has, for the last decade, been influential in regional security and political matters.

It drafted a proposal that created the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), following an endorsement by the AU Peace and Security Council.

It has also been a mediator in the South Sudan peace talks, leading to a number of ceasefire agreements even though most were broken.

Some officials in the region told the Nation that Workneh’s appointment did not follow consultations.

We think the appointment of the executive secretary should have waited for the summit,

a Kenyan diplomat familiar with the tussle said.

He added that the decision would not augur well on membership of the bloc, as it means Ethiopia is not willing to let others take part in the leadership of Igad.

PAST CASE

The executive secretary is technically the CEO of the regional bloc and is appointed by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government for a four-year term, renewable once.

The current holder, Mahboub Maalim, a Kenyan, overshot his two-term limit by two and a half years.

This was after the heads of state failed to agree on who to appoint.

Maalim took over from Sudanese Attalla Bashir, in 2008.

With Ethiopia chairing the bloc, Somalia, Djibouti and Uganda nominated candidates for the executive secretary position.

Decisions on chairmanship and executive secretary are often endorsed at heads of state and government summits, after which appointees are notified.

Interviews with other diplomats in the region raised the same complaint.

ROTATION

Ethiopia has chaired Igad since 2010, when Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki handed the mantle to PM Meles Zenawi.

Zenawi died in 2012 but the chairmanship has continuously been held by his successors: Hailemariam Desalegn and now Abiy Ahmed, despite it being rotational.

In fairness, there were no complaints before, probably because those interested now had other targets.

A Somali diplomat told the Nation that the rotation policy,

seems to have been discarded years ago.

There have been no regular summits for heads of state and government for nearly 10 years, he added, except extraordinary meetings often called to address emergencies like the war in South Sudan or the situation in Somalia.

"COMPETITION"

Igad bureaucrats, however, told the Nation that there are no wrangles but “competition”.

It is an honest conversation aimed at reforming the organisation so as to serve interests of Igad member states citizens better,

Nuur Mohamud Sheekh, a senior political adviser at Igad, said.

Of course, lobbying for this by member states is not unusual. Uganda, Somalia and South Sudan nominated candidates, but it seems there’s consensus for Ethiopia to occupy the seat.

Abiy made it clear last year, that Igad needs to be reformed and that Ethiopia will give up the chairmanship. At no time did he tie this, to taking the executive secretary position.

He added that previous leadership choices were competitive, but the council of ministers and the summit often reached consensus on who to pick.

Igad superseded the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD), which was formed in 1986 to deal with natural disasters.

The new bloc was to generate an identity and be in charge of resolving regional crises.

[Zmeselo]

By FRED OLUOCH

https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/a ... index.html

SATURDAY OCTOBER 26 2019

Kenya and Ethiopia are under intense pressure to relinquish the leadership of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which they have dominated for the past eleven years.

Djibouti, which has been eyeing the position of the executive secretary complains that the two countries have dominated the leadership of the development and security regional organisation and have allegedly swayed most decisions in the eight-member body in their favour.

Djibouti has reacted strongly to speculation that Kenya and Ethiopia want to swap the top positions in the regional body, with Kenya getting the chairpersonship and Ethiopia taking over the position of executive secretary.

The incumbent executive secretary, Mahboub Maalim, a Kenyan, was supposed to retire in 2016 after two four-year terms, having been elected to the position in June 2008.

However, sources from Igad say that the ordinary heads of state summit has not been held for the past eleven years.

Igad sources in Djibouti said that Mr Maalim had wanted to leave at the end of his two terms but the lack of consensus on the next holder of the office has delayed his departure by almost three years.

Former Ethiopian foreign minister, Dr Workeneh Gebeyehu, has been mentioned as the likely next executive secretary—a position coveted by Somalia also—But the Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya, Meles Alem Tikea, told The EastAfrican that he was yet to be officially informed of any candidate.

The post of the executive secretary has been held by Kenya since 2008 with Ethiopia having the chairmanship.

The first chair was the late Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi, followed by Hailemariam Desalegn, and currently he position is held by current PM, Dr Abiy Ahmed.

The chairmanship was supposed to go to Sudan in 2016, but partner states feared that the indictment of the then leader, Omar al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court could have led some Western donors to pull out support.

Kenya and Djibouti—previously close allies—fell out in August when Djibouti defied the African Union’s endorsement of Kenya’s candidature for a UN Security Council seat.

Djibouti continues to push for the non-permanent seat, by taking the campaign directly to other UN member states.

In 2017, Djibouti backed Kenya’s candidate for the African Union Commission Chair, Dr Amina Mohamed.

Eritrea’s protest

Djibouti and Somalia have been covertly lobbying for convening of the Igad ordinary summit for the appointments of the executive secretary and the chairperson. The last meeting concerning appointments was in June 2008.

Kenya was scheduled to host the ordinary summit by the end of October, and Ethiopia’s Dr Abiy—who is the current Igad chairperson—has been consulting other countries to reach a consensus on the next executive secretary.

Igad, which was founded by Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Uganda in 1986, later admitted South Sudan and Eritrea after the end of the war and independence respectively.

Eritrea, however, suspended its Igad membership in 2007 after the body issued a report accusing it of having ties with extremist groups in Somalia.

In 2011, however, Eritrea re-joined the bloc but again, in 2017, it suspended its membership in protest against Igad’s partisanship with then arch-enemy Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, international observers are concerned that Igad has not been effective in pushing for the implementation of the September 2018 South Sudan peace agreement.

Unlike the 2015 mediation that had Seyoum Mesfin as the mediator, the current Igad Special Envoy to South Sudan, Ismail Wais is accused by the opposition of being too close to the Salva Kiir government.

Igad has been struggling to refute claims that vested interests of partner states, especially Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Sudan have been affecting its role in the South Sudan peace process.

Most international observers such as Ugandan academic, Prof Mahmood Mamdani said soon after the peace agreement last year that it was only meant to benefit Uganda and Sudan.

South Sudan is on its way to becoming an informal protectorate of Sudan and Uganda. By formally acknowledging them as “guarantors,” the agreement recognises their strategic role in determining the future of South Sudan: Ugandan troops are physically present to support Kiir’s faction, and Sudan provides critical support to opposition groups, including those led by Machar,

wrote Prof Mamdani in an article published by the New York Times.

[Zmeselo]

[Zmeselo]

@Erihistory:

In July 2011, Leaders of IGAD called on AU & UN to impose additional sanctions against Eritrea. But, IGAD never called on Ethiopia to abide by the final & binding decision of the Boundary Commission. Member countries, should not allow IGAD to be an extension/Unit of Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Elias Amare:

IGAD—a failed regional organization for the so-called Greater Horn of Africa—has been hijacked long ago by external powers to the detriment of the region's development. Having outlived its usefulness, It must be terminated & replaced by a new regional organization.

Mamet

And these are leaders who are supposed to govern and lead their people into democratization, economic development and peace? It is shameful that they can't observe some simple rule of conduct of collaboration, accountability, transparency, ethics and integrity among this small group. How is it that they cannot apply the basic principle, that everyone in the group takes a turn in leadership positions? How is it that one or two countries, keep ‘rotating’ or 'swapping' in these positions at IGAD. It is a bunch of claptrap, to claim that these leadership positions were done by acclimation or agreement—it seems that the Kenyans and Ethiopians were scratching each other’s back all along. Shameful! And this is a glaring example, of how African leaders do not allow their constituencies to exercise their rights

As for saying that they discussed it during the ‘party’ at the gala that was thrown by the Nobel Prize winner Abiy in Addis, it is laughable how irresponsible and thoughtless these leaders are. Did they just meet in an ad-hoc manner, in between their festivities? This is almost immoral. As it is, it is quite amazing and grotesque for this gala in Addis to take place under the rubric of this sycophancy to ‘Ethiopianness’ by beseeching and glorifying past kings and thugs. Tewodros (who was a war lord during the feudal times); Menelik (among his inequities, he oversaw a kingdom that was slave trading and expansionist); Haile Selassie (who was simply a usurper of the throne, was the instigator of misery to Eritrea among his other injustices); and the butcher Mengistu Haile Mariam (who killed so many Eritreans and even young Ethiopians, and ran away to hide in Ian Smith's estate--the notorious racist). It was amazing when Abiy was talking to parliament recently that he referred to Mengistu, ‘Guad Mengistu’. All this does not bode well, and brings up a lot of questions on Abiy’s stance and his tone-deaf approach to historical facts. This writer is not against Abiy and hope he could be successful in bringing reform and remain democratic, as there are those terrible predecessors who are working relentlessly to undercut him. But, it is something to take note of.



TesfaNews:

1) What happened to the UN job, that the former foreign minister Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu reportedly got PM Abiy to grant him an executive job of IGAD .... just like that?

2) Uganda, Sudan, and South Sudan used to have the same agenda in IGAD due to the conflict in South Sudan and Somalia, and that left Kenya and Ethiopia to manipulate the block as if it is part of their foreign ministry. Member states are saying ENOUGH.

3) Now that Somalia has issues with Kenya, the leadership can not go to neither of them for reasons called: 'conflict of interest'.

4) It comes down to Djibouti and Eritrea. Clearly, Djibouti is expressing its desire by saying it's her turn this time. In fact, it made its frustration clear when it refused to show up at the Unity Park inauguration, while the rest of the IGAD leaders attended. Eritrea too didn't show up, due to non-IGAD related issue.

5) Eritrea has been calling for reform and restructuring of IGAD for almost a decade, eversince it was conveniently hijacked by Ethiopia and Kenya to serve their regional agendas.

The competition is, therefore, real and we shall see if they can elect the next Chairman and CEO unanimously.

Speaking of Rotation, IGAD is unique compared to other regional organization ... it has been led by Ethiopia since 2008: