Somalia

Somalia’s Big Bet: From Stamps and Seals to Salaries On Mogadishu’s seafront, where dawn breaks over an ocean that could feed a nation, a young graduate walks past a locked ice room and a kiosk selling imported fish sticks. It’s a small, painful theatre of missed opportunities in a country with 3,300 kilometers of coastline and a generation hungry for work. The thesis now gaining traction in the capital is deceptively simple: if Somalia aligns rules, power, visas, and trust with the cadence of global trade, paperwork can…

Egypt and Eritrea Tighten Ties as Sudan’s Conflict Reshapes the Horn CAIRO — In a meeting that underscored shifting alliances across the Horn of Africa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi this week publicly reaffirmed Cairo’s backing for Eritrea’s sovereignty and signaled a renewed push for deeper economic and strategic cooperation with Asmara. The talks, held in Cairo and attended by both countries’ foreign ministers, were framed by the Egyptian presidential office as an effort to bolster investment links and…

Somalia’s Federal Government Pays Troops in Puntland State, Deepening a High-Stakes Rift Mogadishu — Somalia’s federal government has moved to directly pay more than 2,500 soldiers stationed across Puntland State in a blunt show of authority that underlines a widening power struggle with the semi-autonomous region, officials and financial records indicate. Over the past 48 hours, soldiers in Garowe, Bosaso and Galkayo received $200 each via electronic transfers, according to local officials and transaction details reviewed…

Egypt and Eritrea Tighten Ties as Sudan’s Conflict Reshapes the Horn CAIRO — In a meeting that underscored shifting alliances across the Horn of Africa, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi this week publicly reaffirmed Cairo’s backing for Eritrea’s sovereignty and signaled a renewed push for deeper economic and strategic cooperation with Asmara. The talks, held in Cairo and attended by both countries’ foreign ministers, were framed by the Egyptian presidential office as an effort to bolster investment links and…

Djibouti’s Guelleh Calls for Somali Unity — While Quietly Extending His Own Rule Analysis At a commemorative ceremony steeped in the memory of the 2000 Arta Conference — the meeting that helped coax Somalia from state collapse toward a fragile transitional government — Djibouti’s President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh delivered a familiar message with a fresh edge. “Somalis, only you can rebuild your country,” he said, encouraging neighbors to rely on themselves rather than on foreign patrons. It was the kind of exhortation that…

Somalia’s Arta Anniversary: A Quiet Milestone Amid Deepening Political Strains When President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud touched down in Djibouti this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Arta Peace Conference, the trip looked at first like a ceremonial reprise of a turning point in Somali history. Villa Somalia described the visit as a working engagement “at the invitation of H.E. President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh,” noting bilateral talks and participation in the commemoration of the 2000 conference that helped birth Somalia’s…

Somalia and Turkey Mark Republic Day — And a Partnership Forged in Crisis Mogadishu’s salute to a trusted ally Under the bright Mogadishu sun, a small crowd filtered into the Turkish Embassy’s courtyard on Wednesday, where Turkish and Somali flags hung side by side and a brass band played the familiar crescendos of national anthems. It was a moment at once ceremonial and deeply personal: Somalia joined Turkey in marking the 102nd anniversary of the Republic, with Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre calling the day “a shared…

Ethiopia’s lost coastline: Abiy’s legal claim, a diplomatic gamble and the region’s fragile future When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stood before Ethiopia’s parliament this week and declared that his country “lost access to the sea” under circumstances he now calls legally flawed, he was doing more than restating a grievance. He was reviving a central theme of modern Ethiopian politics: the economic and psychological toll of being landlocked in a region where control of ports can determine a nation’s fate. What the prime…

Between a Scholarship and a Closed Door: A Somali Student’s Long Wait for a Yes The calls stopped first. Then the messages. For 12 days, a Somali student who had won a coveted Erasmus Mundus scholarship waited for a residence permit to study in Denmark—only to learn, as so many young people with dreams find out, that the hardest borders are often the invisible ones. Ali Musa, a scholar who had secured full funding to study at the University of Copenhagen, found his plans stalled when Danish authorities denied his residence…

You are a senior international journalist. First, read the source news carefully and decide whether it is best written as: Breaking News → urgent, fast-moving event, immediate facts first. Feature Story → human, textured, on-the-ground narrative. Opinion/Analysis → reflective, interpretive, connecting events to wider trends. Based on the content, automatically choose the right style (don’t ask me to specify) and rewrite into an original piece for a global audience. Rules: Length: 700–1100 words depending on…