Piano Mattei, Mariam Yassin: “What an opportunity for my Somalia

The ambassador speaks, broadening her gaze to the Horn of Africa

ROME – The Mattei Plan as an opportunity to be seized. From a development perspective but also as an antidote and anti-crisis support. Taking into account local contexts, obviously, but proposing, evaluating and without holding back. This is the perspective of Mariam Yassin Hagi Yussuf, special envoy of the presidency of Somalia for migration, repatriation and children’s rights. He answers the phone from Mogadishu. “The Mattei Plan could help a lot” he added. “We must study it thoroughly, also in Somalia, and define our strategy.” Yassin has a painful and extraordinary personal story, of which Italy is part. In 1991, at the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia, after the killing of his father, he left for Europe. She studied in Turin, becoming an Italian citizen and specializing in migration issues. She returned to Mogadishu, where she lives and where she answers the phone, in 2009. Determined to deal with women’s rights, with a civil society organisation, and then with migrants and children: until the task entrusted to her by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, head of state since 2022. Let’s talk about the Mattei Plan, the initiative of Giorgia Meloni’s government which promises to strengthen “equal to equal” and “non-predatory” cooperation with African countries.

“We must ensure that Italy pays particular attention to Somalia, also due to the historical ties it has with the country” Yassin’s warning and at the same time his hope. “Looking at my specific field of migration, in particular with respect to the crucial issue of returns from Europe, it would be useful if the Plan promoted training and social inclusion paths”. The possibilities for cooperation with Somalia are many, also starting from the history and common experiences, from the beginning of the Italian colonial adventure in 1889 up to the fascist era, which ended with the Second World War and the collapse of Mussolini’s empire. “The country today has many needs” underlines the ambassador. “As a Somali and at the same time an Italian, I would like to be able to imagine ideas and concrete proposals to be implemented”.
The context, even at a regional level, looking at the Horn of Africa, is marked by unknowns . “It is a difficult phase both as a whole and for individual countries in the region” underlines Yassin. “There is Sudan, which is worrying not only for human suffering, with a civil conflict that in little more than a year has forced over eight million people to leave their homes, but also for the absence of a prospect of peace; and what is alarming is Ethiopia, the most populous country in the area, where internal conflicts risk multiplying and where a legitimate request for access to the sea, I am thinking of the Somaliland issue, must take into account the principle of the territorial integrity of Somalia and respect for international law”.
Let’s follow the map. In Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, the Adwa Museum recently opened: with amphitheatre, library and multimedia rooms, it celebrates not so much the defeat of the Italians in 1896 as the triumph of united Africa against all colonialism.


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The inauguration coincided with another crucial moment for the country, as underlined by Abiy Ahmed, the first head of government with origins from the Oromo community, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2019 for having wanted an agreement with neighboring Eritrea after decades of war and tensions. A new conflict, fought between 2020 and 2022, with its epicenter in Tigray, the region where Adwa is located, has left a legacy of claims and violence in Ethiopia. Last April alone, 50 thousand people had to flee from an area on the border between Tigray and Amhara, another area marked by instability.
Then there is the question of access to the sea, which has been central since Addis Ababa has lost control of the ports on the Red Sea of Eritrea, which became independent in 1993. According to Yassin, “the memorandum of understanding signed last January between the Ethiopian government and that of Somaliland, a de facto autonomous but never recognized region at an international level and considered by Somalia to be an integral part of its territory, fuels fears of a new conflict”. And be careful: the Horn of Africa is the crossroads of the world. You can look as far as Kazan, in Russia, on the road to the Urals. The sports games of the Brics alliance were held in this city in June. Athletes from Addis Ababa also participated: Ethiopia is in fact one of the new members of the alliance, born from the convergence of interests between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In an increasingly multipolar world, however crossed by the risks of that “piecemeal world war” that Pope Francis has so often denounced, we must avoid the opening of new fronts. With Ethiopia perhaps pitted against Somalia, still dealing with the repercussions of the civil conflict that erupted in 1991, the year of the fall of President Siad Barre and the de facto independence of Somaliland.

Yassin was a witness to those events. His father was killed then. Then there was Italy, university studies and research on migration. The return to Somalia was marked by social commitment, with a caesura in the middle: 21 September 2013. That day Yassin was held hostage in a shopping center in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, pregnant next to her husband who was shot to death, one of the 62 civilians murdered by members of an Al Shabaab jihadist commando. Since then, the Somali organization fighting with the Mogadishu government has never laid down its weapons. “Al Shabaab still occupies some territories, despite the army having liberated more areas” underlines Yassin. “Here we are discussing the withdrawal of the African Union peacekeepers, set for next December 31st: their support has been important for Somalia, but in the future we will have to reach the point where the country is able to defend itself from only”.
In the background there are other unknowns. Such as the lifting by the United Nations of an embargo on the delivery of weapons to Mogadishu, which came into force in 1991, when Barre’s air force bombed Somaliland. President Mohamud celebrates the decision as a victory. For critics, waiting for the Mattei Plan, it is confirmation of the risks affecting the Horn of Africa.