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MOGADISHU, 13 November 2026 – Defence Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi has claimed that groups he referred to as the opposition were given four million dollars to bring down Mogadishu, mocking the amount as very small.
Speaking exclusively to Dawan Africa on Thursday evening, on the sidelines of the launch of the book ‘Somalia: A State in Search of Exceptional Leadership’ by Dr. Abdirahman Abdullahi Baadiyow, Fiqi said:
"It was said four million dollars was given to bring down Mogadishu. Only four million dollars was given!"
The minister compared the sum with the value of buildings in the capital. "A single floor at KM4 is more expensive than that: forty million," he said, suggesting that one floor of a building at KM4 is worth more than the amount he mentioned.
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Continuing, the minister said the money they received reflected how little they were worth. "Look how cheap these men are... if they were going to take something, they should have said so before: a billion, two billion, three. Couldn't they have taken that?" he said.
Fiqi said the Somali government has moved beyond the times when it used to be pressured. "If yesterday they used to try sending groups, if they used to send intimidation, if they used to rely on the international community, today we have moved beyond that," he said.
The minister added that the government wants political and economic independence. "We now have a government that wants to make its own political decisions, own its economy, and benefit from our country's oil," he said, calling for an end to reliance on begging and pleading.
The minister did not say who allegedly received the money or who paid it, and did not present evidence for his claim. He has previously accused the opposition several times of taking money from foreign governments to create turmoil in Somalia.