Shatigadud reluctant to visit Ethiopia

The president of the self-declared South West State of Somalia, Col Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, is still in Baidoa, despite the fact he was expected to visit the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Shatigadud is also chairman of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) and Baidoa, 240 km northwest of Mogadishu, is the headquarters of both the RRA and the opposition Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC).

Shatigadud had been expected to go to Addis Ababa after two of his deputies returned from there with an invitation from the Ethiopian authorities. "The chairman is still here, but he and his delegation will go to Addis Ababa soon," Muhammad Ali Adan Qalinle, a senior RRA official and governor of Baidoa, told IRIN on Tuesday.

Local sources in Baidoa told IRIN that Shatigadud was reluctant to make the trip for fear that he might be replaced during his absence. "The only way he will go is if he takes both his deputies with him. There is a widespread perception here [in Baidoa] that if he goes to Addis he will not come back," the sources said.

There have been persistent reports in the Mogadishu-based media of a split between Shatigadud and the two RRA deputy chairmen, Shaykh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade. The two reportedly said that as Shatigadud was now president of the new state, Shaykh Adan, the first vice-chairman, should become chairman of the RRA. This had led to rising tension in the town.

Qalinle however dismissed the reports, describing them as "mere gossip propagated by rumour-mongers and enemies of our people". He told IRIN that Shatigadud would go "with a very large delegation to Addis Ababa very soon".

The establishment of the South West State as the third regional administration to be set up in Somalia - after Somaliland and Puntland - was announced in April by the RRA leadership.