Telecom oligarchs, government ghost workers & Ayaan Hirsi Ali still grifting
Issue #10: Ayaan Hirsi Ali is still recyclying tired stereotypes about Muslims and Somalis in which she's found a lucrative career
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another issue of Acacia, Geeska’s weekly East Africa newsletter!
We want to begin this issue with a tribute to five Al Jazeera journalists who were killed last week in an Israeli airstrike outside Gaza's al-Shifa hospital. Anas al-Sharif, Al Jazeera Arabic’s main correspondent in northern Gaza, was among those killed in a targeted attack. We also now know, thanks to reporting by +972 Magazine, that Israel has a unit within its armed forces responsible for smearing the reputations of journalists in Gaza, which is where those Hamas accusations come from. In a post on X, Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar said she was grateful to the “courageous truth-teller journalists” for their “bravery and sacrifice” in covering the unfolding genocide. Mohamed Rabi Yusuf, Somalia’s deputy UN representative, delivered a forceful speech midweek on the issue at the UN security council, where he questioned the purpose of the council if it cannot bring the carnage in Gaza to an end. “Let the response not be graveyard silence. And silence in a moment like this is not neutrality. For all the victims it is a verdict,” said Yusuf.
Whilst those Al Jazeera journalists were killed for reporting the truth, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s lucrative grift as an tireless recycler of racist stereotypes about Muslims and Somalis is still bearing fruit. She appeared on the UK-based right-wing outlet GB News, where she continued spreading the lies that keep her relevant in that milieu. She fares extremely badly in comparison with Nuruddin Farah, the Somali novelist, who remains in good standing in his community despite being a critical voice. He received an honorary doctorate at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) this week. SOAS referred to him as an “Ethiopian novelist” on their website. Do they know what he’s all about? Speaking of Somalis in Ethiopia, this week the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a former Somali armed liberation group in Ethiopia that laid down its arms in 2018, marked the 41st anniversary of its founding on Friday. Things are heating up there as a standoff between the ONLF and the regional authorites escalates. We’ll be covering that more in future issues, but if you want to get your head around the basic issues, we interviewed Juweria Ali, an expert on the group, a few weeks ago.
That’s the introduction. Now for a deeper dive into the stories we’re featuring this week. It will be politics-heavy, but the Horn of Africa region is really at a crossroads, so do stick around. We speak to independent flight monitor Rich Tedd, an analyst who tracks air traffic in East Africa, about suspicious flights from Puntland to Sudan, Ted Cruz’s letter to Trump pushing for Somaliland’s recognition, the phenomenon of Somali government ghost workers, and much more.
Geopolitics: The UAE, Puntland, RSF pipeline
Independent journalist Rich Tedd has revealed that nearly 80 military cargo flights landed in eastern Libya in July, with more than half—43 flights—coming directly from Bosaso, Puntland. “Flights between Bosaso and eastern Libya have been taking place since late 2024, with activity increasing markedly through June and July,” Tedd told Acacia. “Most have operated between Bosaso and Kufrah, with some transferring suspicious supplies later stored in cargo warehouses at Kufrah Airport.” Tedd added that the timing of the flights, and their cargo “strongly suggests a link to the RSF”. Puntland and the UAE have denied supplying the paramilitary group that is waging war against the Sudanese army. The Sudanese government has sent Somalia a letter protesting Puntland’s role in facilitating support for the RSF.
“Bosaso appears to be functioning as a key transit point and logistics hub, with support and personnel arriving from the UAE before being flown on to Kufrah and other parts of eastern Libya,” said Tedd. A recent report by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) found a RSF base in south eastern Libya. And in July, African Intelligence alleged that the UAE uses Bosaso Airport to run an airlift supporting Sudan’s RSF. The stakes have increased in recent weeks with footage emerging on social of Columbian mercenaries fighting across Sudan. Tedd says flights, often under Kyrgyz registrations with Gewan Airways carry also carry Colombian mercenaries through Bosaso towards RSF strongholds in Sudan. The war in Sudan has caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with the RSF in particular being accused of genocide in Darfur.
Geopolitics: Ted Cruz calls on Trump to recognise Somaliland
Influential US Senator Ted Cruz has written to President Donald Trump, urging him to recognise Somaliland within its pre-union borders with Somalia. The letter was welcomed by Somaliland’s spokesperson. In his letter, Cruz said that recognising Somaliland would be of “greatest benefit to American national security interests”. He outlined several reasons why he believed the US should proceed. Cruz said Somaliland was stable and democratic; and noted that Somaliland is strategically located, cooperates with Taiwan, and “has sought to strengthen ties with Israel and voiced support for the Abraham Accords”. Somalia’s ambassador to the US, Dahir Hassan, issued a statement warning that any move threatening Somalia’s territorial integrity would embolden extremist groups the country is actively fighting. China’s embassy in Mogadishu also released a statement in which it never named Cruz, but said it “firmly opposes” what it called the “bullying attitude of certain US politicians to the Somali people”.
Cruz’s letter is the latest indication that a policy shift towards Hargeisa from the US may be on the horizon. Last week, Trump said he was “working on” the Somaliland issue, though he offered no further details. Meanwhile, UK MP Gavin Williamson, a vocal advocate for Somaliland, said US officials told him Trump intends to recognise Somaliland before the end of his term. Since 2022, Somaliland has actively engaged with anti-China hawks, Republican politicians, and key figures in Washington’s foreign policy circles, successfully positioning itself as a valuable partner.
Society: The people against the telecom oligarchs
Earlier week, Somaliland’s three largest private telecom companies—Telesom (a Hormuud subsidiary), Somtel (owned by the Dahabshiil Group), and the newest entrant, Solteco—faced intense public backlash after they attempted to simultatenously double the price of mobile data and prepaid services. Prominent human rights lawyer Guleid Ahmed Dafac was among the first to sound the alarm. Speaking to Acacia, Dafac called the move “illegal, and clearly an anti-competitive deal,” adding that it “goes against the free market” and could set a dangerous precedent for other sectors. “It will encourage other private companies to make such illegal deals, which will harm the poor community,” he warned.
Mobilising the public online, Dafac announced a peaceful protest and sent a letter to the interior ministry informing them. “I felt it necessary to organise the public because this deal endangered justice and the rule of law,” Dafac said. However, the ministry later claimed it had not received the letter and said that “no protests are allowed,” despite the letter being made public. Public pressure, however, proved decisive. President Abdirahman Abdullahi Ciro ordered the price hike halted and instructed that prices return to their previous levels until further notice. Though Dafac announced the postponement of the protests, he remains sceptical, describing the directive as “vague and unclear.” Some of the companies later issued statements claiming they had “listened to the public.”
Speaking on the potential impact of ther price rise, Dafac said: “It will contribute to the widening wealth gap, where wealth will fall into the hands of a few, making life much harder for the poor.” This has direct implications for the quality of Somaliland’s democracy. These companies, and their telecom subsidiaries, control a large share of the economy, bankroll the campaigns of politicians, and operate revolving doors of employees moving into government and back into company ranks. Claire Elder describes Somaliland more as an “oligopolistic state” than a democracy in the sense that power is concentrated among a few elites and corporate actors who limit genuine political competition. “We have constitutional weaknesses,” Dafac says, and “anti-corruption measures are largely absent.”
Government: The government’s army of ghost workers
The governor of Banadir region, Hassan Mohamed Mungab, recently revealed that of the 3,000 employees on the regional administration payroll, fewer than 600 actually show up for work. The rest? They are what we’d call ghost workers. In 2023, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that over 5,000 government workers are registered in the national biometric system, yet only 1,500 report for duty on any given day. “Where are the rest?” the president asked. “They do not exist or they do not live in the country. However, they are still paid. They are thieves, and so are the superiors who approve these payments. They are stealing public money.”
The rot runs deeper. Even the country’s parliament suffers from chronic absenteeism. In a recent session, only 87 of 275 MPs bothered to attend, forcing yet another session to be halted for lack of quorum. Many lawmakers live abroad, in Kenya or even outside Africa, and rarely, if ever, participate in legislative work. Yet they collect salaries far beyond what most Somalis could dream of earning. And in 2023 they voted to increase their salaries! Somali writer Yasin Ahmed has a name for them – the “dream men”. They’ve figured out a way to receive what everyone wants: a passive income with no effort. The bitter irony? Somalia remains heavily dependent on foreign aid for its budget. Sixty per cent is funded by external donors, and nearly a quarter of the country’s total income comes from foreign assistance. In effect, much of the country’s government salaries are paid with money intended for Somalia’s poorest, but ends up on the pocket of a political cartel.
Identity: Does Somalia have a national identity for National IDs to be rolled out?
Big changes are on the way for citizens in Somalia. Starting 1 September 2025, anyone applying for a passport will first need a national ID card. And from 1 January 2026, the rule will extend to domestic travel as well. The announcement came after a meeting in Mogadishu chaired by internal security minister, Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail, with both the Immigration and Citizenship Agency (ICA) and the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) on board. In April this year, the Somali prime minister Hamza Abdi Barre said: “All government agencies and service providers are required to condition NID for service access.” The push for a single ID system isn’t new. The national ID process started in 2017, when the then federal government began replacing the complicated patchwork of ID systems that were causing trouble for remittances and global banking compliance. Support rolled in — $10.3 million from Pakistan and technical expertise from the World Bank. Parliament then passed Law No. 41 in 2020, setting up an authority (then called DADSOM) to collect biometric data and issue IDs to citizens. The post-2022 government refined that law, rebranding the agency as NIRA.
The idea sounds neat on paper, but politics and identity might be the real roadblocks. In an attempt to sketch the contours of what it means to be Somali, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud remarked back in 2023: “The fact that an individual shares our skin colour and speaks the Somali language does not in itself establish Somali nationality.” He added that people who look and sound Somali “reside alongside us” but that “conclusive proof must be obtained” to confirm Somali nationality. The broader question concerns the criteria by which Somali identity is defined. Conventional Somali understanding frames Somali identity through the prisms of shared culture, language, and religion, while foregrounding the impact of colonial fragmentation. However, any attempt to delineate this identity is inherently fraught, as it intersects with contested historical legacies as well as ongoing political frictions. Somaliland for example, won’t recognise its legitimacy, whilst Puntland, which has already rolled out its own separate ID card system — a move the federal government strongly condemned.
Across the gees
Justice Julia Sebutinde, a Ugandan judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), faced intense criticism for being the sole dissenter in a January 2024 ruling directing Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza. Uganda even publicly distanced itself from her decision, with its UN permanent representative clarifying that her ruling did not reflect the “Government of Uganda’s position”. Breaking her silence on what likely motivated her at a church event in Uganda, Sebutinde said she felt divinely guided to support Israel, lamenting that “the whole world was against Israel, including my country.” Sebutinde framed the Gaza conflict as a sign of the biblical “End Times,” urging Christians to follow events in Israel. She expressed feeling "humbled" that God allowed her to participate in these “last days.”
We continue to see reports of East African countries entering negotiations with Israel to host Palestinians it seeks to forcibly remove from Gaza. The latest this week was South Sudan which quickly denied the report in AP. Later CNN reported that Israel had entered into negotiations with South Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia and Libya. Ethiopia has remained silent on the issue; Libya has declared it would never support such a policy; while Somaliland has indicated a willingness to discuss it. The policy would represent a historic breach of international law, and the international community is overwhelmingly opposed. What remains unclear is why the leaks persist and are repeatedly denied by states unwilling to take part in a scheme to remove Palestinians from their land.
El Fasher, a city in western Sudan, in the Darfur region is being starved by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces which are enforcing siege. Children are “skin and bones”, people are eating animal feed and those who escape are tormented and sometimes killed. Now, 30 countries—mainly European—have called for a “halt to the siege” and a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid into the city. At least 60 people have died of hunger this week, the statement said. “This cannot continue.”
Africa
Africa is often misrepresented on maps, appearing much smaller than it is. The African Union is now joining calls for global mapping standards to be updated to reflect the continent’s true scale. The commonly used Mercator map, created in the 16th century, distorts landmasses—shrinking Africa while enlarging regions farther from the equator. “It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” said AU Commission deputy chair Selma Malika Haddadi, arguing it falsely portrays Africa as “marginal.” In truth, Africa is large enough to fit India, China, and the United States—with room to spare…
Tangent
This week on Tangents, we think you guys should check out this interview on Middle East Eye’s Unapologetic, in which Ashfaaq Carim interviewed the renowned scholar of modern Islamic movements, John Esposito. They discussed “Political Islam’s 120-year story - from anti-colonial struggle to now”. It critically engages with the roots of these movements, their ideas and their shortcomings.
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