Somalia

Drone strike in Lower Shabelle underscores the moral and strategic dilemmas of remote warfare A reported drone strike this week in Akunji village, in Somalia’s volatile Janaale district of Lower Shabelle, has reopened painful questions about who bears the cost of a campaign fought mostly from the air. Local accounts and media reports say civilians may have been killed; authorities have not confirmed responsibility. The fog that surrounds the incident is familiar in Somalia — and emblematic of a broader global debate over…

Somalia: Three brothers killed on family farm in suspected clan-reprisal attack in Lower Shabelle At least three brothers were shot dead while working their fields in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region on Wednesday, in what local residents described as a clan-reprisal attack. The killings took place in Dudumaaye, an area under the Wanlaweyn district, about two hours by road from Mogadishu. Residents reached by phone said the men were tending their farm when gunmen believed to be from a rival militia opened fire. The victims…

Jubaland’s intelligence push tests Somalia’s fragile center-periphery balance KISMAYO — When Jubaland leader Ahmed Madobe unveiled a gleaming new headquarters for the Jubbaland Intelligence and Security Agency this month, he did more than cut a ribbon. Standing before a bank of monitors and satellite dishes, Madobe declared that his region’s spy service now outperforms the federal government’s National Intelligence and Security Agency. “When it comes to security information in the Horn of Africa, the agency everyone turns…

As Puntland State claims new victories against ISIS in Cal‑Miskaad, deeper questions remain BOSASO, Somalia — For nearly a year, Puntland State’s security forces have been waging a gritty campaign against Islamic State-linked militants dug into the tangled ridges and cave networks of the Cal‑Miskaad mountains. Local commanders and officials now insist the offensive is paying off — with recent operations dislodging fighters from a strategic base and seizing several cave systems — but analysts and residents warn that military…

Somalia says overnight raid kills seven Al‑Shabaab fighters as counterinsurgency grinds on in Hiiraan Somalia’s intelligence service says its agents, working with international partners, killed seven Al‑Shabaab fighters in a three‑phase raid overnight in the country’s central Hiiraan region, a patch of territory that has swung back and forth between government forces and the al‑Qaida‑linked group over the past two years. In a statement released Tuesday, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said the…

Behind closed doors in Villa Somalia: former foes, fragile alliances MOGADISHU — In a sign of how fragile and fluid Somali politics remain, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud convened a private meeting at Villa Somalia this week with a who’s who of figures who recently left the Somali National Salvation Council. The gathering — attended by former Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, ex-Parliament Speaker Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman, and Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the one-time president of SouthWest State — has…

Somalia’s Donor Dollars Meet Local Politics: Hirshabelle’s District Choice Reopens Old Debates In Somalia’s Hirshabelle state, a seemingly technical decision — which district gets the next round of donor-backed support — has turned into a small window on a much larger question: who gets to be seen, heard, and funded in a federal system still finding its feet. The controversy touches the Somalia Recurrent Cost & Reform Financing (RCRF) Phase III program, an internationally funded effort, implemented by the Federal…

Global Gateway in Somalia: Investment with a Human Face — and Hard Questions MOGADISHU — When the European Union rolled out its Global Gateway initiative in Brussels this month, the message was simple: funnel European capital into connectivity projects across Africa, Asia and beyond, and build ties that can withstand geopolitical shocks. For Somalia, a country still rebuilding after decades of conflict, the program promises not just roads and ports but jobs and a stake in the global economy. The EU delegation in Mogadishu…

Power struggle in Somalia’s Hirshabelle spills into the open with Hiiraan governor sacked Somalia’s fragile federal experiment is feeling the strain again, this time in Hirshabelle, where President Ali Abdullahi Hussein Guudlawe has dismissed the governor of Hiiraan region amid a dispute over who collects taxes at Beledweyne’s Ugaas Khaliif Airport. It is a small airfield by global standards, but control over its revenues has become a proxy for power in a state where budgets are thin and authority is contested block by…

Interpol-led arrest spotlights Somalia’s struggle with sexual violence, jurisdiction and fragile justice MOGADISHU — The arrest and transfer to Mogadishu of a former hospital director accused of rape has set off questions across Somalia about who prosecutes crimes in a country where authority is often divided and justice fragile. Authorities say Interpol, working with Rwandan officials, helped locate and arrest Jama Abdi Mohamud, the one-time director of a hospital in Qardho, who has been accused of sexual assault and of…