Mogadishu (AX) — Domestic air travel between Mogadishu and Puntland State was thrown into disruption Thursday morning after Somalia’s federal government began requiring passengers on domestic routes to present a NIRA national identity card.
Passengers booked on a Freedom Airlines flight from Garowe to Mogadishu and Nairobi were stopped at the airport and informed that they could not board because they lacked the national ID.
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Puntland State is one of the regions where the card is not currently available because the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has no registration offices there. As a result, some passengers were forced to leave the airport and return home.
NIRA announced in September that, from Oct. 1, 2026, anyone without a national identity card would be barred from traveling between Somalia’s regions. The authority called on residents to visit its registration centers and secure the document.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has previously described the NIRA card as a requirement for accessing a range of public services, including travel, passports, bank accounts and telecommunications services.
He has warned that people without national identification could face growing difficulty obtaining certain services, while cardholders would be able to access them more conveniently.
The decision to enforce the requirement has prompted concern in Puntland State, where residents have not yet been given access to NIRA registration.
The policy is already affecting passengers attempting to travel between Puntland State and Mogadishu.
Two weeks ago, NIRA reported that it had registered more than 1.5 million Somali citizens since 2023. The government aims to register 15 million citizens and residents by 2029.
Speaking at a Mogadishu event commemorating World ID Day, Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation Minister Ali Yusuf Ali Hoosh said Somalia had left behind the era in which it had no formal national identification system.
