Farmajo is becoming dictatorial as dissension grows in the international community and prospects for federal unity and isolating Shabaab recede
The last year was full of promise of greater change during this year. Regional relations were dominated by the sea-change in policy brought about by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and in November Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea pledged to turn over a new leaf. Ethiopia – whose troops in Somalia seem nearly dormant now – would stop imposing its diktat, and its new friend, Eritrea, would be admitted back into the regional fold and may even supply troops to help fight the Al Shabaab Islamist insurgents. The three also promised to protect 'the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Somalia', a pledge first uttered, but hardly observed, when Ethiopia's former dictator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, shook hands on it with Somalia's last elected President, Mohamed Siad Barre, in 1988.
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