“I want to tell Somalis to keep talking to each other. Somalis need a political settlement with each other because no amount of international assistance can make that happen. Somalis need to make that happen for themselves,” DFID Somalia boss Joanna Reid said with a grin, before boarding her special flight back to the Somalia capital, Mogadishu.
Baidoa – Somalia: Joanna Reid, the United Kingdom Department of Foreign and International Development (DFID) Somalia chief visited Baidoa for the first time to check out progress and impact of DFID’s work locally implemented by various humanitarian organizations aimed at empowering the local community to be self-sufficient in the ongoing international efforts to stabilize Somalia.
During her short visit, Madam Joanna toured the Baidoa police station, where UK tax payer’s money is helping to renovate the dilapidated police station and since all the offices are under renovation she had to be briefed under a tree by the policemen.
She also met with a team of Somali mine experts under Mine Action who defuse and detonate bombs and other Improvised explosives devices (IEDs) and had the opportunity to detonate a small bomb under the supervision of the Somali mine experts, the bomb she detonated was among dozens of others planted by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Baidoa which have been safely recovered and are in the process of being defused.
“I find it encouraging hearing that people are saying now it is time for change in Somalia and that they have got some stability. People say now they want some development, they want to do something with that and that is very important and it is not seen as humanitarian assistance it is really development,” She said.
Joanna and her delegation comprising of DFID staffs in Somalia later visited the Baidoa central jail that is also in a very bad shape with leaking roofs and congested rooms for inmates. The jail is in the pipeline to benefit from the UK aid managed and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
She later met with local Somali leaders and various representatives of humanitarian agencies implementing DFID programs in Baidoa to hear about the progress of the work, challenges faced by the implementers and more importantly what could be done differently to help improve the pathetic situation of Somalis.
“What we were saying to the governor is that it is not just sticking pasta, feeding people, we can now move on from that but you need the political will and you need stability and so if you have got that then I think we can see some development in Somalia,” Joanna said.
BROKEN BAIDOA
Baidoa governor Abdi Adan Hosow praised the UK government for its support to Somalia and in particular Baidoa. He said DFID programs are helping locals with much need skills and entrepreneurial skills to quickly settle from years of conflict and displacement.
“Baidoa town is so glad to host the DFID Somalia chief and her staff. We wish to greatly thank the people of the UK and their government for the much needed support in to our people. Your money is helping families cope with years of conflict and displacement and it is also imparting life skills to youths and women many of who would otherwise be languishing in poverty or in utter hopelessness,” Governor Hosow told the UK delegation. The governor is himself a Somali British diaspora returnee from London.
The little Joanna and her team saw of Baidoa simply shocked her. She was however full of praise to the African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, AMISOM, saying that they are vital in making peace happen which in the long term would help in the development of Somalia.
“Baidoa is very broken. I did not see a single building that was intact and so I think that in itself it is quite shocking and I think we need to remember just how fragile and how much people have been through here and what they have suffered and they deserve a better future, they really do,” She added.
Asked what message she had for Somalis, Joanna Reid posed, before carefully picking her words.
“I want to tell Somalis to keep talking to each other. Somalis need a political settlement with each other because no amount of international assistance can make that happen. Somalis need to make that happen for themselves,” DFID Somalia boss Joanna Reid said with a grin, before boarding her special flight back to the Somalia capital, Mogadishu.
