BRUSSELS/PARIS — Somali diplomat and former South West State parliament speaker Ali Said Fiqi has recalled his first meeting with former Somali Foreign Minister Abdirahman Beyle during a diplomatic visit to Brussels and Paris in April 2014.
Fiqi said he was serving as Somalia’s ambassador to the European Union at the time, while Beyle travelled to Brussels with an advance delegation ahead of then-President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s participation in the fourth European Union-African Union summit.
According to Fiqi, it was Beyle’s first foreign trip since becoming foreign minister and the first time the two men had met.
Fiqi, who also served as Somalia’s non-resident ambassador to France, said he took Beyle to Paris over the weekend to show him the condition of Somalia’s diplomatic properties there.
Somalia had two diplomatic properties in Paris at the time: its embassy near the Champs-Élysées and the ambassador’s residence in Vaucresson, outside the French capital.
Fiqi said he and Beyle discussed Somalia’s political situation and the country’s deterioration during the train journey to Paris. Beyle also told him about patriotic songs he had composed, Fiqi recalled.
The meeting left Fiqi with a favourable first impression of Beyle.
“I thought to myself: This is a man of principle, a rare person. He will serve the nation well,” Fiqi recalled.
The two were met by Somali diplomat Ahmed Shire and went directly to the Somali embassy, which Fiqi described as being in a state of severe disrepair.
Fiqi said Beyle became emotional after seeing the condition of the building, placing his hands against a deteriorating wall and crying. Fiqi said he also became emotional.
According to Fiqi, a man known as “Tuute”, a military attaché who had remained at the property since 1991 to protect it and safeguard Somali diplomatic documents, witnessed the incident.
Fiqi said Tuute warned him not to trust Beyle, describing him as a “traitor”.
Fiqi said he rejected the warning at the time and defended Beyle as a patriot.
“I told him: ‘Do not rush to judge him. He is a true patriot,’” Fiqi recalled.
Looking back, Fiqi said he now believes his initial judgment was wrong.
“I was wrong. Tuute was right,” he said.
Fiqi’s comments are a personal recollection of events from 2014 and reflect his own assessment of Beyle at the time and in retrospect.
