Balanbale (& rest of W. Galgaduud to an extent) was target of "conflict resolution" UN/donor grant money scams scheme
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 3:29 am
This description of an understanding I developed while in Caabudwaaq district recently seems to have perked interest so let us make it more accessible.
Gubbet wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 3:45 am Generally, I am talking about the shameless confusion being engineered about having disagreed with an "opinion" of mine regarding settlement when really it was a seriously impartial, conflict analysis with detailed, on-the-ground documentation that one attempted to contest although without being aware at first.
Balanbale is emotional for some, as I clearly disclosed, which has partly fed into Balanbale becoming one of the most targeted locations for IDP/humanitarian oriented scams from an entire post-1991 Mogadishu based network from Guriceel-Dhusamareb who attempted to weaponize NGO business to respond to the emotional loss created by the revocation of the 1996 agreement while simulataneously personally enriching themselves.
The modus operandi was always the same, in hindsight; institute 4-6 "jiingad" (tin collapsibles) randomly, "recreate" a narrative appropriating a name relevant to the migratory route of their experience during the 1996 agreement, promptly set the scene for material documentation, temporarily bait Balanbale engineering the creation of "conflict," then disperse.
But of course, one now had a project proposal to go and continue milking the scam even used to monopolize "peace building" and "conflict resolution" line item grants.
What a cohort has been doing using Balanbale provacation is fundamentally egregious, but it is no longer a secret, and it is very well understood concept now.
There are really no "villages" between Balanbale and Guriceel. It is not even like Caabudwaaq where there are villages like Bangeelle even Xananbuuro.
In Balanbale, the "villages" are on the west towards the Marehan grazing grounds in Ethiopia and in Guriceel, the villages are towards the south to Hiiraan and Matabaan area for Cayr. Between Balanbale and Guriceel,there are utilized spaces with water and other features for migratory movements in the past, but no real "villages.
It is merely empty tin collapsible ghost dots for the purposes of the grant scams. This is why even the 3 variations of the UNOCHA maps are incredibly inaccurate.
Furthermore, there are at least 1/4 of a dozen (+-3) recreations of names and identifications purposely engineered for weaponizing conflict resolution to scam humanitarian grants/aid.
There are multiple "Ali Hassan"---multiple "Bali Hawd"---multiple "Odaale."
I will give an example of this disconnect using "Oodaale."
"Oodaale" old is outside Guriceel. What they have reinterpreted as "Oodaale" is called by Marehan in Balanbale as "Gaxandhaale."
It is true that during the experience of the 1996 agreement, Guriceel folks freely passed by Gaxandhaale on their way to Feerfeer route which Rer Balanbale have not used since 1982 and the Ethiopian-SSDF capture of Balanbale in which many Marehan from Balanbale were massacred.
In that migration, seasonally, both going down to Feerfeer and coming back up to Galgaduud, Guriceel nomads would build their temporary ood for rest or emergency, which ever, next to already populated spots and Gaxandhaale was a very convenient location being the settlement with good water access utilized always by the southern facing Rer Balanbale.
Guriceels upcycled "Odaale" to reinterpret "Gaxandhaale" in their subjective memory, but where they immediately decamped next to Gaxandhaale. The area has been a very targeted landscape for the IDP scam where there was recurrent empty "jinged" overnight placement/morning emptiness. It is where Rer Balanbale started to understand what this was all about.
Well, two years ago, Rer Balanbale decided to physically settle in "Gaxandhaale" as a deterrent to the recurrent bait and switch.
For an entire year, last year, there was random attacks on Gaxandhaale; drive by sort of shootings. Even just as weaponized was information; at every turn Guriceel folks redrafted the narrative of "two communities of Balanbale from Gaxandhaale fighting over resources."
I mean really just put "Gaxandhaale" and "Balanbale" into Google and you will get countless hits and propaganda about this repurposed information warfare.
This is Gaxandhaale as of last month; half a year after it was successfully completely seized back from the forces of misinformation after a 2 year campaign to solidify security of the wider perimeter.
It is no longer the useful victim targeted for temporary "jiingad" placements to scam donor conflict resolution/IDP grant schemes, a ghost created for purposed mapping without equities on the ground;---but is now a real building process with brick and morter school and clinic and water well entirely financed by Rer Siyaad Diini of Balanbale and contributions from other Marehan.
Balanbale has had the misfortune of becoming a target of a thrifty scam, but the usefully "unaware" era has come to a close.
The experience of Gaxandhaale speaks for itself after the information warfare of the recent past.

