Somalia

Somalia’s Jobless Youth and the Expat Premium: What Happens When a Country Outsources Its Future? MOGADISHU — On a hot morning near Kilometre 4, the capital’s arteries of traffic pulse around concrete blast walls and coffee stalls. At a curbside kiosk, a queue of young men and women refresh their phones, swapping links to job ads that feel always just out of reach. Many are college graduates; most live with family; almost all say the same thing: the opportunities are elsewhere. Somalia is far from the only place where a…

Somalia and Rwanda Sign a Cooperation Pact. Here’s Why It Matters Beyond Kigali On a brisk Monday in Kigali, Somalia’s foreign minister, Abdisalam Abdi Ali, and Rwanda’s top diplomat, Olivier Jean Patrick Nduhungirehe, put ink to paper on a General Cooperation Agreement that is modest on its face and ambitious in its implications. The accord promises collaboration in diplomacy, trade, investment, and capacity building—terms that can read like bureaucratic shorthand. But stitched into the fabric of this deal is a larger…

Djibouti’s parliament clears a path for President Guelleh to stay — what it means at home and abroad In a move that tightens the grip of a long-serving leader while exposing a geopolitical paradox, Djibouti’s parliament voted to remove the constitutional age limit for the presidency, effectively opening the door for 77‑year‑old Ismail Omar Guelleh to seek another five‑year term in the April 2026 election. The measure, adopted with the support of 65 members of parliament according to the speaker, Dileita Mohamed Dileita, is…

In London’s Kensington, British‑Somali graduates turn caps and hopes toward a shared future On a mild Sunday in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, blue-and-white ribbons—echoes of the Somali flag—fluttered outside a packed hall as families streamed in, clutching bouquets and camera phones. Inside, as the names of new graduates were called, ululations rose, and elders lifted their hands in prayer. This was the 5th British‑Somali Global Graduation Ceremony, a community rite of passage that has grown into a showcase…

London ceremony spotlights a rising British‑Somali generation and a new model of diaspora engagement On a crisp autumn evening in Kensington and Chelsea, hundreds of family members, politicians and community leaders gathered to celebrate what felt like more than individual degrees: the growing influence of a British‑Somali community staking its claim in Britain’s civic and professional life. The 5th British‑Somali Global Graduation Ceremony, held on 26 October, brought together graduates from leading UK universities and a…

Yemen and Somalia Look to the Gulf of Aden for a Reset — Trade, Flights, and a Security Hedge On a warm Sunday in Aden, inside a government building that has seen more than its share of chapter changes, Yemen’s Transport Minister Dr. Abdisalam Hamid sat down with Somalia’s ambassador, Abdulhakim Mohamed, to talk about rebuilding old routes across a troubled sea. The meeting didn’t produce the flashy, sweeping pledges that crowd the diplomatic calendar. Yet in a region where small steps often foreshadow bigger shifts, their…

Somalia and Ethiopia test a fragile thaw on the shores of Lake Tana At a security forum in northern Ethiopia this weekend, officials from Somalia and Ethiopia stepped into a quiet side room and did something deceptively simple: they talked. In an era when silence can harden into policy, the meeting on the sidelines of the Tana High-Level Forum in Bahir Dar—Ethiopia’s lakeside city ringed by papyrus boats and monastic islands—signaled a cautious shift from confrontation to engagement in the Horn of Africa. The delegations,…

Puntland State’s “victory” over ISIS-Somalia is tentative — and raises hard questions about what comes next BOSASO, Somalia — After nearly a year of focused operations in the Cal‑Miskaat highlands and the rugged valleys of Bari, Puntland State’s regional president declared this week that Islamic State–Somalia had been broken as a fighting force. Said Abdullahi Deni told members of the regional parliament that the campaign, launched in December 2024 with support from the United States and regional partners, had “destroyed…

In Kigali, a quiet pledge between Somalia and Nigeria hints at a broader shift in Africa’s fight against extremism On a mild Saturday in Kigali, two senior soldiers from different ends of the continent sat down and agreed to swap hard-won lessons from the battlefield. Somalia’s Land Forces Commander, Major General Sahal Abdullahi Omar—widely known as General Khalid—met Nigeria’s Infantry Commander, Major General Usman Abdulmumin Yusuf, to map out deeper military cooperation. The plan: share combat experience, expand joint…

In Mogadishu, a small but determined push against a tide of falsehoods MOGADISHU — For three days in late October, a conference room in the Somali capital hummed with the sort of quiet urgency that has come to define journalism in fragile states: laptops open, phones muted, trainers and trainees leaning into the same problem — how to stop lies from becoming news. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), with funding from the Australian government via its High Commission in Nairobi, brought 32 reporters, editors…