Kicked out of Somalia, U.N. envoy publicly raises poll concerns

The United Nations envoy to Somalia warned on Thursday that the arrest of a former militant leader could deter others from choosing politics over violence, speaking publicly about the incident despite being kicked out of the country just days earlier for privately expressing his concerns to the government.

Nicholas Haysom briefed the U.N. Security Council in New York but did not address a statement issued by Somalia’s foreign affairs ministry late on Tuesday that accused him of interfering in internal affairs and said he “cannot work in this country.”

Haysom had raised questions in a letter on Sunday about the involvement of U.N.-supported Somali security forces in the arrest of a former militant of the Islamist al Shabaab group who was blocked from running in a recent regional election.

He told the 15-member Security Council that the allegations of interference by the federal government in the regional election and the violence that followed the former militant’s arrest “does not bode well for the upcoming electoral processes in other regions or for the 2020 national elections.”

Source: Reuters.