The so-called IGAD Regional Integration Strategy for 2021–2025 is nothing more than a dangerous and deeply flawed agenda designed to strip our country of its sovereignty, dismantle its territorial integrity, and subjugate the Somali people to foreign influence—particularly that of Ethiopia.
Let us remember: IGAD was not founded as a political tool of domination. Its original mission was simple and honorable—to coordinate responses to drought, desertification, and other pressing environmental and agricultural challenges in the Horn of Africa. But that purpose has long since been hijacked.
Under the influence of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, IGAD was weaponized—twisted into a tool of political and military control over our country. Rather than supporting Somalia’s recovery from decades of conflict, IGAD has become the very instrument that blocks our progress, undermines our political system, and keeps our country in a state of dependence and instability.
We are being managed, not assisted.
Today, Somalia gains nothing—absolutely nothing—from its membership in IGAD. Worse, the proposed regional integration strategy is a direct threat to our existence as a free and independent Somali state. It demands that we open our borders, relinquish control over immigration, and accept millions of Ethiopians to live, work, and move freely in Somalia with rights equal to native Somalis.
This is not integration; it is a backdoor annexation—a demographic invasion masked in bureaucratic language.
This strategy is not about peace. It is not about prosperity. It is about domination. It is a deliberate attempt to:
- Weaken Somalia’s emerging democratic institutions;
- Erode our national security and border control;
- Exploit Somalia’s rich natural resources under the cover of regional cooperation;
- Suppress Somali nationalism—not only in Somalia but also in the Somali regions of Ethiopia and Kenya.
This “integration” mirrors the same disastrous mistake we made by rushing into the East African Community, where Somalia paid heavily in terms of membership and prestige and received nothing but foreign manipulation and hollow promises in return.
We pay USD 7 million in membership fees, and what do we get in return? Absolutely nothing.
We must ask: Who benefits from this agenda? Certainly not the Somali people. Certainly not the youth struggling for a better future. It is clear that those pushing this strategy are foreign agents and naïve officials who do not understand—or choose to ignore—the national security implications of surrendering our sovereignty.
I do not understand why State Minister Ali Omar (Balcad) is putting so much effort into championing this dangerous strategy. It raises serious questions about his loyalties and intentions. What does he stand to gain personally by turning Somalia into a client state of Ethiopia? IGAD, after all, is—and has always been—under the de facto control of Addis Ababa.
Let there be no mistake: Somalia does not need IGAD. We need to rebuild our institutions free from foreign manipulation. We need to control our borders, our politics, and our economy—on Somali terms, by Somali hands, and for Somali benefit.
The IGAD 2021–2025 Regional Integration Strategy must be rejected outright. Not amended. Not negotiated. Rejected. For the sake of our sovereignty, our people, and our future as a free Somali nation.
This is a national red line that must not be crossed.
SOOMAALIYA HA NOOLAATO!
Mukhtar Ainashe