Who is Somalia’s new envoy for East African Community [EAC]?

The new envoy is a career diplomat and economist having served as Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia in 2013 before being promoted to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 29 2017.

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Who is Somalia’s new envoy for East African Community [EAC]?

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Abdisalam Hadliye Omar has been appointed as Somalia’s presidential envoy for the East African community weeks after the country renewed interest in joining the EAC.

Villa Somalia announced on Sunday that Omar will serve as a presidential envoy for the regional trade bloc which is made up of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and DR Congo.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who won the presidential polls in May, attended as a special guest the 21st Ordinary Summit of the EAC Heads of State held last month in Arusha, Tanzania.

It’s the third time Somalia tries to join the EAC since 2015, but the bloc initially refused the application, citing sporadic conflict and weak institutions in Somalia.

Who is new Somalia’s EAC envoy?

Omar was born in 1954 in Borama city in northern Somalia, which is now under Somaliland, a breakaway region that claims to have seceded from the greater of the nation in May 1991. It did not get recognition.

He hails from the Gadabuursi clan which is dominant in the Awdal region. He resides in Columbia, USA and studied at Boston College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics in 1977.

National Career.

The new envoy is a career diplomat and economist having served as Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia in 2013 before being promoted to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2015 to 29 2017.

He worked under Hassan Sheikh Mohamud during his first term in Villa Somalia from 2012 to 2017.

Corruption allegations

Omar resigned from the post of the central bank governor in September 2013 following a report by the UN Monitoring Group which alleged that 80% of withdrawals were made for private purposes.

The report said he made all banking decisions in the absence of a board and that the Bank was not subject to the legislature or government oversight institutions.

Omar denied the charges and described the UN report as an attempt to discredit him.

After his resignation, president Hassan Sheikh appointed Yussur Abrar, a female Somali banker and entrepreneur to replace him at a time the country was in the midst of a political and security crisis.

In a shock move, she quit after only seven weeks in the job, alleging she had been pressured to accept arrangements she believed would open the door to corruption.

According to her resignation letter, which Reuters has reviewed, the former Citigroup vice president, Abrar said she had vehemently opposed a contract with U.S. law firm Shulman Rogers under which it is trying to recover the assets from abroad. This, she said, would “put the frozen assets at risk and open the door to corruption”. 

She is the first woman to be appointed as the Central Bank's governor.

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