Italy on track to recover assets expropriated in Somalia after 1991

[Deeq A.]

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Addis Ababa.

Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — The visit of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to Ethiopia to attend a trilateral summit comes in the wake of an active campaign by Italian government to recover assets expropriated in Somalia by clan militias after the collapse of the state in January 1991.

The Italian government companies and citizens own properties and farms in Southern Somalia regions. Landmark buildings such the now destroyed Mogadishu cathedral and the Italian House in pre-war Central Mogadishu bore remarkable Italian influence reflected in cinemas, bookshops, patisseries, grocers and restaurants among other businesses that made Mogadishu a melting-pot.

Italian construction companies were implementing projects in Southern Somalia. The Italian expatriate community had a seizable presence in Mogadishu before United Somali Congress toppled the military regime. Italian citizens had to be evacuated from Mogadishu.

The Mogadishu Cathedral near Cinema Hamar and Caffè Nazionale before 1991.

The new government formed by an organisation founded in Rome in 1989 failed to stem the anarchy that followed the fall of the military regime. Armed militias illegally occupied properties of owners who fled the capital city. Some of the illegal occupants have forged title deeds, a problem that venal Mogadishu courts grapple with, forcing rightful owners to seek redress through Al-shabaab courts outside Mogadishu.

A lawyer in Rome told Puntland Post that “Italian assets expropriated in Somalia belong citizens of the European Union. The Federal Government of Somalia will be required to issue an official statement on the unresolved issue of assets expropriated in Mogadishu by clans politically dominant in Mogadishu.”

It is a political taboo in Mogadishu that the Federal Government of Somalia under President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is reluctant to commit itself to protecting property rights. Illegal occupants have not only laid claim to private properties in Mogadishu and nearby regions but they also occupied schools, barracks, government buildings, and turned parks into retail units.

The Italian Embassy in Mogadishu maintains a register of assets belonging to Italian citizens, the Government of Italy, Italian companies or the Vatican. “Meloni will persuade President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to take steps to help Italians to recover their assets expropriated in Somalia” said a former MP in Mogadishu, who requested anonymity.

During his first term of office (2012-2017), President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had the benefit of doubt that the first post-transition dispensation had other priorities. His re-election almost one year ago and the Italian government initiative to recover Italian assets in Somalia put the principle of property rights in Somalia at the heart of state-building initiatives.

© Puntland Post, 2023

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