Somalia’s president heads to UN with security gains and a moral case on Gaza
Mogadishu’s message to New York
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MOGADISHU — As world leaders converge on the United Nations General Assembly this week, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud departs for New York carrying two intertwined narratives: a plea for continued international backing for Somalia’s fragile state-building and a sharp moral rebuke over the war in Gaza that echoes across the Global South.
For Mogadishu, the UNGA trip is part diplomacy, part scoreboard. Somali officials will underline measurable progress: improved governance in parts of the country, economic reforms that aim to lure back investment, and stepped-up operations against al‑Shabaab militants that have reclaimed territory once held by the insurgency. Those gains, officials say, are fragile and dependent on steady, not episodic, international support from partners who remain among Somalia’s biggest donors and security backers.
“We have come far, but we are not yet where we need to be,” a statement from the presidency ahead of the trip said, framing Somalia as both a partner in counterterrorism and a nation still in need of capacity-building for durable peace.
Security, stabilization and the politics of aid
Somalia’s pitch at the UN is familiar to governments emerging from protracted conflict: highlight progress while warning of relapse without continued investment. For ordinary Somalis this is a lived reality. In Mogadishu’s markets and tea houses, people talk of new businesses and returning schools alongside persistent electricity cuts, drought-driven food insecurity and the constant threat of roadside bombs.
That tension — between hard-won gains and enduring vulnerabilities — is a central diplomatic ask. Donors must decide whether to treat Somalia as a test case for sustained engagement in a turbulent region or as one of many competing priorities in a crowded international agenda dominated this year by the Gaza war, Russia’s war in Ukraine and climate emergencies.
Gaza, morality and the limits of the Security Council
From the Security Council to the General Assembly floor
Mohamud’s trip will also be shaped by firestorms elsewhere. Somalia, which sits among those smaller states that have increasingly asserted moral positions on global conflicts, will push a message about Gaza at the UNGA — not least because its ambassador in New York, Abukar Osman, has been vocal in recent Security Council deliberations. Osman accused the council of a “profound moral failing” by failing to stop the bloodshed, a line that has resonance far beyond Somalia.
The controversy over a vetoed ceasefire resolution — where a majority of council members supported action but a single veto prevented binding measures — has revived long-standing questions about the Security Council’s ability to act. Somalia was among the non-permanent members that backed the resolution, and state media framed the 14‑1 vote as a “moral victory” even if it carried no legal force.
Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, diplomats are watching whether small and middle powers can translate moral consensus into political pressure. Will repeated failures at the Security Council drive more countries to seek alternatives — greater reliance on the General Assembly, regional bodies, or coalitions of the willing? Or will those institutions, too, buckle under geopolitical strain?
Wider implications: shifting alliances and global norms
What Somalia’s posture tells us about global trends
Somalia’s dual focus at the UNGA — security assistance and loud moral protest over Gaza — speaks to broader patterns. First, it highlights how countries long dependent on Western security assistance are increasingly willing to critique those same partners on issues of international law and human rights. Second, it underlines a growing impatience among Global South states with a UN system that often appears gridlocked when major powers diverge.
There is also a subtle geopolitical recalibration under way. African states, including Somalia, are navigating a multipolar world where China, Turkey, the Gulf states and Western governments all play influential roles. Each actor brings money, diplomacy and different models of engagement. For Somalia’s leaders, the calculus is pragmatic: secure the resources and training needed to keep al‑Shabaab on the back foot while maintaining political space to speak on humanitarian crises that resonate with Somali public opinion.
Questions for the UN and the international community
As President Mohamud prepares his remarks, hard questions hang in the air. Can a nation still recovering from decades of conflict credibly press for a rules-based order at the same time as it needs exceptions and special arrangements to secure its own stability? How will donors reconcile long-term commitments in fragile states with the immediate urge to respond to headline crises that dominate the UN agenda?
And perhaps most important: what does it say about the international system when moral consensus among a broad group of states is stymied by procedural power on one council? Small-state diplomats — from Somalia and beyond — are asking whether the existing architecture can deliver justice and protection, or whether new mechanisms will be required to fill the gap.
On the streets of Mogadishu
Back home, ordinary Somalis will follow the UNGA through short radio updates and social media. For many, the questions are proximate: will security translate into safer neighborhoods and more jobs? Will international attention bring more investment in power grids and classrooms rather than just headlines about distant wars?
President Mohamud’s trip is thus both a plea and a test: a plea for continued resources that sustain fragile progress, and a test of whether the United Nations can still serve as a forum where small and large states alike can press for accountability without being drowned out by the muscle of geopolitics. As delegates gather in New York, the answer will matter not only for Gaza and Somalia, but for the credibility of multilateralism itself.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
