Somalia declares UN envoy persona non grata

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somalia’s government has ordered the United Nations envoy to the country to leave, amid questions over the arrest of the al-Shabab extremist group’s former deputy leader who had run for a regional presidency.

A foreign ministry statement late Tuesday accuses Nicholas Haysom of diplomatic overreach that violated the Horn of Africa nation’s sovereignty, declaring him “persona non grata.” He arrived as envoy a few months ago.

Haysom had questioned the legal basis used in the arrest last month of Mukhtar Robow, a former al-Shabab spokesman who defected from the group in 2017, and whether U.N.-funded regional police in the Southwest were involved.

Ethiopian troops who are part of the African Union force in Somalia and Somali police arrested Robow days before the regional election in which Robow had been a leading candidate. Deadly protests followed. Ethiopia has not commented.

Robow was flown to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, and has been held in a prison run by Somalia’s intelligence agency.

A U.N. spokesman said they were not commenting now, and Haysom did not immediately respond.

Instead, Haysom and the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general late Tuesday issued statements strongly condemning a mortar attack that hit the main U.N. compound in Mogadishu earlier in the day. 

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