Editorial

EDITORIAL | Somalia's 80 reported cases of the new coronavirus disease have become a cause for concern, especially among enthusiasts from a rising country. The concern lies in both the number and the uncertainty they create: As of Tuesday this week, the federal Department of Health had reported 25 cases of COVID-19 for which the disease is formally known. These numbers jumped in a shocking pattern over two days to reach 80 by recording 25 on Wednesday and another 20 on Thursday. What this means is that surveillance…

EDITORIAL | For more than 30 years, Somalia has been accustomed to things like war, drought, displacement and floods. Then came the new coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19. Globally, it has killed more than 90,000 out of more than 1.5 million infected people. In Somalia, it had infected eight people Thursday night and killed one. Except there's a problem: COVID-19 did not start in Africa or Somalia, as those who like to mutilate the Horn of Africa country might have expected. It started in Wuhan, China.…

EDITORIAL | Somalia may have been so accustomed to negativity for the past three decades. But this week, it may have been the only country in the world this week that received good news. In the midst of the raging new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Mogadishu received debt relief from its former lenders. On Tuesday, the Paris club - the group of rich countries that traditionally lend to the poor - agreed to clear Somalia's arrears of 1.4 billion. $. This decision and that of the World Bank, the International…

EDITORIAL | Somalia has this week clarified its neutrality in the smoldering dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over the large $ 4.8 billion water dam project on the Nile River that Addis Ababa is laying up. In an interview with a television station this week, Ahmed Isse Awad, the Somali foreign minister explained that the neutrality of Mogadishu could actually help convey a useful solution between the two sides. But it threw a new wrench into the works of relations between Somalia and Egypt as well as Mogadishu and…

EDITORIAL | Da Dr. Fawziya Abikar Nor, the Somali health minister, announced on Monday in Mogadishu that a case of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) had been confirmed in the country, it may have only ended an anxious wait. But this announcement could now create new anxiety: Somalia, which has been on a positive trajectory recently on most fronts, is being forced to take a break. This week, for example, Somali Minister of Air Transport and Airports Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar imposed a 15-day ban on international flights,…

EDITORIAL | In March 2012, Abdihakim Ali Yasin, Somalia's then Special Envoy to President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, presented a letter of intent to join the East African community in Kenya. Kenya was then the EAC's chairman of the bloc and Moses Wetang'ula when the foreign minister received the application as chairman of the Council of Ministers. Sir. Wetang'ula said the application was a good step and that it could help the country recover after years of civil war and insecurity from Al-Shabaab. "There is no…

EDITORIAL | Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo called his Kenyan counterpart on Thursday and offered to dispel tensions that had punctured their common border at Mandera and Bulla-Hawo in the Gedo region. But whether it could actually remove the tensions was still a matter of debate. On Thursday night, our sources and experts indicated that Farmajo was still keeping its eyes focused on the price: Political suffocation throughout Somalia, regardless of roadblocks. It had begun Monday after special forces…

EDITORIAL | Somalia's history in 2020 could be an inspiration or disillusionment. And depending on who you ask, some people may be credited for leading to this brand or redirecting the country's journey to an unknown area. This week marks a milestone in particular for Somalia: The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) begins its planned troop command on 28 February, reducing the number by initially around 1,000. As recommended by UN Security Council Resolution 2472 of 2019, AMISOM was to begin a gradual…

EDITORIAL | Somalia's politics these days are behaving like a moving target. Unanswered other and new things are happening that affect security, economy and society in general. But for a country struggling to discard the mark of insecurity, many things seem to remain like sticking sore thumbs. So this week, after the Galmudug fiasco, we seem to have gone back to the usual federal-government-federal-state drawn by wars. First, the federal government in Somalia sent Somali special forces, reportedly trained by…

EDITORIAL | U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Donald Yamamoto may be the number one public enemy, depending on who you ask. But he may also be a stone that masons almost rejected in Somalia. In the last ten days, Mr. Yamamoto, the former deputy foreign minister for African affairs, set fire to controversy in Galmudug, where he joined Ahmed Kariye Qoorqoor as a new state president. The local Sunni group (Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jamaah (ASWJ) and other candidates had in fact boycotted the polls, arguing that there was a…