A picture of the old US Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia.
This story is pretty cool. The other day SOC put out a deal on Facebook that they were glad to be a part of the US establishing a permanent diplomatic presence in Somalia. I thought that was interesting, because we haven’t had an official presence there since 1991. The US closed the embassy because of how dangerous it was and have operated out of Kenya for Somalia diplomatic business. The Battle of Mogadishu is a good example of how bad it really was at the time and the US leaving was quite the episode.
Fast forward to now, and here we are opening up shop in Mogadishu. Apparently the old embassy is not being used and the current office is somewhere near the airport. Surprisingly there are quite a few embassies that are open in Mogadishu, and many of them use the services of PMSC’s or private logistics companies to take care of their people.
The reason for this latest move? It is a combination of the past administrations efforts to establish a presence in Somalia, and partly due to the current administrations new Africa strategy.
As to this specific deal with SOC, Department of State actually put out on FBO that details exactly what is going on. SOC was picked because they had the people with the right qualifications and the license to do security work in Somalia. They even had to do this as a soul source because of how fast this need to be stood up. Here are the reasons, and because SOC had all of this in place, they won.
1. Licenses: Host nation licenses are often the source of significant delays, especially when mobilizing for new work. The prime must be licensed to provide security services in Somalia and registered to conduct business in Kenya. Having both these licenses mitigates the substantial risk of performance delays due to approval of new licenses.
2. Clearances: Bio-approvals and SECRET level security clearances for newly hired personnel can exceed ninety days. Vendors without an actively employed, approved, and cleared labor pool have a much higher risk of failing to meet the mobilization timeline.
3. Training: The first step for any non-performing WPS II vendor selected for this requirement would be to submit training curricula to the Department. The Department would have to approve these curricula (a minimum of one week) and to have instructors reviewed and approved (one to two weeks), and then begin training. Completion of training requirements varies but can extend to several months.
4. Availability: Required resources must be readily available for deployment.
The amount paid for these initial services was $15 million, and I am sure that will only go up in future contracts. According to the DoS award, once the presence is established in Somalia, then they would go back to a more competitive WPS 2 IDIQ set up.
So with that said, would they be going back to the original compound where the embassy once stood? Who knows… I know the Somalis gave the US the deed to that compound. The question though is if it is a good spot from a security point of view and do we actually want to rehab that site? Either way, it is private security that answered the call and helped bring the US back to that country. That is significant and bravo to all those involved. –Matt
US Restores ‘Permanent Diplomatic Presence’ in Somalia
The United States has resumed a “permanent diplomatic presence” in Somalia’s capital after an absence of nearly throe decades.State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the new mission opened Sunday. “This historic event reflects Somalia’s progress in recent years and is another step forward in formalizing U.S. diplomatic engagement in Mogadishu,” the statement read.The U.S. formally recognized Somalia’s new federal government in 2013, but has based its diplomatic outpost at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.Veteran U.S. diplomat Donald Yamamoto arrived in Mogadishu last month as Washington’s ambassador to Somalia.The new mission will not be a full U.S. embassy, and some diplomatic staff are expected to remain stationed in Kenya.The U.S. embassy was closed in January 1991 when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and Somalia descended into civil and anarchy.Then-President George H.W. Bush deployed U.S. forces to Somalia in late 1992 to provide stability and allow aid to reach suffering Somalis.But the mission turned tragic months later, when two U.S. military helicopters were shot down and 18 U.S. soldiers killed during an operation against a warlord.