On Thursday, Somalia’s bickering leaders were embroiled in a new spat when the prime minister requested the deportation of the African Union’s envoy to the unstable country.

The office of Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble claimed Francisco Madeira had been declared persona non grata “for participating in conduct that are incompatible with his capacity as representative of the African Union Commission” and had been ordered to leave Somalia within 48 hours.

The message on Twitter did not go into detail about Roble’s decision about Madeira, a Mozambican diplomat who has served as the AU Commission chief’s special envoy to Somalia since 2015.

However, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s administration, also known as Farmajo, called his rival’s move against Madeira illegitimate.

On Twitter, the president stated that it “has received no accusations of interference with its sovereignty and does not support any unlawful action against Amb. Francisco Madeira.”

According to the report, Farmajo has directed the foreign ministry to apologise to the AU for the “illegitimate and imprudent action made by an authorised authority.”

It is unclear who controls the position of the AU representative in the nation.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a new peacekeeping force for the Horn of Africa country, where Al-Shabaab insurgents have been attempting to destabilise the fragile government for more than a decade.

The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) succeeds the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which the Security Council established in 2007.

The mission, drawn from throughout Africa, pushed Al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu in 2011, establishing enough stability for the formation of a government and federal agencies, as well as the holding of two rounds of elections.

However, a severe power struggle between Farmajo and Roble has hampered plans to arrange long-delayed elections once the president’s term expires in February 2021.

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