Jan. 1: Somalia joins UN Human Rights Council Jan.
2: Somalia expels UN envoy for questioning their killing of protesters
Somalia expels top U.N. official after he criticizes crackdown on dissent
Somalia’s government took the unusually drastic step of expelling the United Nations’ most senior official in the country late Tuesday after he questioned the detention of a former al-Shabab leader contesting regional elections.
Nicholas Haysom, a South African, had served only a few months as the special representative for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. Somalia’s Foreign Ministry declared him “persona non grata” and ordered him to leave the country.
“The decision came after the highest U.N. diplomat in Somalia violated the agency’s standards and the international diplomatic norms by intervening in the national sovereignty of Somalia,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by state-owned media.