Somalia silent on Trump saying there was ‘anarchy’ there

By: BBC AFRICA

Somalia’s ministry of foreign affairs office has told the BBC that they had no comment to make in response to US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the country during a campaign rally on Saturday night.

While bashing Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born US congresswoman, Mr Trump alleged that she wanted to reshape the US like the “anarchy” that was Somalia “where she came from”:

Quote Message: She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came. Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing. Just anarchy. And now she is telling us how to run our country. No thank you.”

“She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came. Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing. Just anarchy. And now she is telling us how to run our country. No thank you.”

Trump tears into Ilhan Omar:

“She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came. Somalia. No government, no safety, no police, no nothing. Just anarchy. And now she is telling us how to run our country. No thank you.” pic.twitter.com/BvpFaOrAM4

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 21, 2020

The BBC Somali service asked the ministry of foreign affairs if it had a response, but it said that it was not making any comments.

Somalia’s UN-backed government in the capital, Mogadishu, does not control the whole of the country’s territory. It is battling with militant group al-Shabab and the country is often beset by security problems.

Mr Trump described Ms Omar as a “hate-filled, American bashing socialist” who will be part of deciding the fate of America should the Democrat’s presidential candidate, Joe Biden, win the November election.

Ms Omar, who has been targeted by the president before, described Mr Trump’s remarks as “racist”, adding that he was angry because polls had shown that he was losing to Joe Biden in her state, Minnesota.

Mr Biden is likely to be the president’s challenger come November’s presidential election.

Ms Omar, 37, has been an ardent critic of Mr Trump.

She and her family fled Somalia after civil war broke out and spent four years in a refugee in Kenya before relocating to the US in 1995.

Her father, who had relocated the family to the US, died last week from Covid-19 complications.