OPINION – An African Bishop’s Warning: America Is Funding Its Own Enemies
To American policymakers and global leaders who continue to court the cadaver of the Somali state in Mogadishu, I speak not as a diplomat, but as a witness. You are being played for fools. Your policy toward Mogadishu is not just a failure; it is an active subsidy to corruption, terror, and those who spit on your flag.
Look at what your “partnership” has wrought. While your drones circle overhead, a more insidious threat flows from your own heartland. The massive fraud in the Minnesota refugee program—where millions of US taxpayer dollars were stolen—is not a distant crime. That money bled back into the very networks that sustain Mogadishu’s kleptocracy. Your humanitarian aid and state-building funds are not building a nation; they are a slush fund for elites who laugh at your naiveté. Today, officials in Villa Somalia rob you twice: first of your dollars, and then of your dignity. They see America not as an ally but as a donor with low self-esteem—an endless well to be plundered.
This betrayal has no bottom. Do you know what is said in the political backrooms of Nairobi by certain Somali leaders your governments protect? They boast of the “Black Hawk Down” operation. They celebrate the corpses of American servicemen as a victory they would “repeat again.” Let that venom sink in. They insult the very hand that feeds them, while their kinsmen in al-Shabab plot to murder your key regional ally, Kenya, where I serve. This is not the rhetoric of a grateful partner. It is the taunt of a hostile entity.
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For decades, you have applied a bankrupt doctrine that has fattened this kleptocracy. You grant legitimacy and resources to a fictive state in Mogadishu that incubates the jihad that kills my people, while you shun the peaceful, functioning democracy in Somaliland that seeks your partnership. You uphold a “territorial integrity” that exists only on an impotent UN letterhead, empowering thieves who channel your generosity into hatred.
The conclusion is inescapable. The regime in Mogadishu and the terrorists it cannot control are two heads of the same snake. They must be treated with the same clarity you apply to Hamas or the Houthis. They are not partners. They are beneficiaries of your weakness who have become a threat.
Moving forward requires moral and strategic courage:
- Immediately halt all direct budgetary aid to Mogadishu. The faucet of corruption must be turned off. Every dollar must be audited, with criminal prosecutions for theft pursued internationally.
- Formally recognize the Republic of Somaliland. Shift all engagement, partnership, and development to the legitimate, democratic government in Hargeisa. Reward stability, not failure.
- Designate the Mogadishu government as a hostile actor. Its corruption funds terror; its rhetoric glorifies war with you. Treat it accordingly. Demand that Kenya shut its border and sanction Somalia’s leaders.
Soft diplomacy has run its course. You are not building a state in Somalia; you are funding a syndicate that mocks you and fuels the war against your allies. I plead with you: See this truth. Stop the hemorrhage. Your compassion is being stolen and forged into a weapon. Do not let your next dollar of aid pay for the bomb that kills one of my flock.
