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Firing squads, blast walls and dangerous diplomacy in Somalia

– Political crisis –
Somalia has yet another new government, appointed in early February, and Wigan was eager to get to know them.

That day he visited Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte who will work with foreign donors on a multi-billion euro plan known as the New Deal Compact.

“This is a courtesy call. There’s a lot of new people we don’t really know,” Wigan told AFP on the way to the meeting at Villa Somalia, the fortified government quarter that was attacked by jihadist suicide bombers and gunmen twice in 2014.

The Deputy PM’s office was a classic example of Somali bureaucracy chic: vases of plastic flowers, overstuffed pleather armchairs, flat-screen televisions and a scrum of assistants, advisors and hangers-on.

“The British government is a strong supporter of Somalia,” Wigan told Arte, a rangy man with rimless glasses and a neat goatee. “But to be honest we’ve been frustrated by the political crisis.”

Arte’s boss is the third prime minister Wigan has seen in the last 18-months, as political infighting stalls the constitutional changes needed before elections planned for September 2016.

“Each time we have to start again to get the things we care about back on track,” Wigan said after the half-hour meeting.

Arte and Wigan did not agree on everything but positions were staked out and priorities listed. As Wigan left he told Arte, “We wish you luck – it’s a tough job.”

“It is, it is,” the minister replied.

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Two days later, while attending Friday prayers at the nearby Central Hotel, Arte was injured in a Shabaab suicide attack that killed at least 25 people.

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