Mogadishu – Somalia – The Prime Minister of Somalia has dismissed Yusuf Abdirahman Samatar from his position as Director-General of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change following a series of serious and well-substantiated allegations of corruption, extortion and financial mismanagement involving international donor funds.
The decision comes at a time of deepening crisis within the Ministry. It has been under increasing scrutiny over reported abuses in the handling of climate and environmental financing, particularly in projects supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
According to a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister, Abdirizak Ahmed has been appointed as the new Director-General. The appointment is intended to restore public trust and strengthen institutional accountability as investigations continue.
Multiple sources within the Ministry and the donor community speaking on condition of anonymity described a network of misconduct involving the former Director-General. Among the most serious allegations is that Samatar, in coordination with Minister Bashir Mohamed Jama and his principal advisor Abdullahi Godah Barre, demanded informal payments from both local and international NGOs. These payments were reportedly requested in exchange for official endorsement letters required for project applications to GEF and GCF. What should have been routine administrative processes were allegedly turned into mechanisms of extortion.
In one case, the Ministry allegedly withheld endorsement of a donor-funded environmental project unless the NGO involved made an unofficial payment. “This type of abuse corrodes donor confidence and fundamentally undermines the credibility of the Ministry,” said a senior official familiar with the matter.
The situation escalated further in recent weeks when whistleblowers revealed that some Ministry employees were forced to share their government salaries with individuals who were not employed by the Ministry. In one instance, under the direct instruction of Yusuf Samatar and with the reported approval of Minister Jama, an employee’s salary was divided and allocated to two unrelated individuals. This has raised serious legal and ethical concerns.
The Prime Minister’s action is widely seen as a necessary first step toward reform. However several observers have noted that wider institutional accountability will be essential to address the systemic weaknesses that allowed such misconduct to occur.
Attempts to reach both Yusuf Samatar and Minister Bashir Mohamed Jama for comment have so far been unsuccessful.
This development has placed Somalia’s engagement with international climate finance mechanisms under greater scrutiny and may lead to calls for stricter oversight by donor agencies.
