Somali students touch down in Baku as scholarships cement a new South–South bridge
When the doors slid open at Baku’s modern glass-and-steel airport, a small group of Somali students in winter jackets stepped into a new chapter. They paused for a group photo—smiles wide, eyes a little overwhelmed by the cold and the cameras—and were met by embassy officials and university representatives, a scene captured by Somali state media. For many, it was their first time in the Caucasus. For all, it was the beginning of a bet on education as a path to rebuilding a nation.
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Somalia’s embassy in Ankara said Tuesday that 28 Somali students have been awarded Azerbaijani government scholarships this year, with 19 already in Baku and nine more to follow. They will train in petroleum science, engineering, medicine and computer science—practical, high-demand fields Somali officials say are essential to the country’s reconstruction and long-term growth.
“Your success will strengthen Somalia’s future as well as your own,” Somali Ambassador to Turkey Fathudin Ali Mohamed Ospite, who is also accredited to Baku, told the group at their airport reception. He and First Secretary Ibrahim Ali Abshir led the welcome, part ceremony, part pep talk, and entirely freighted with the weight of expectation.
Education as foreign policy
These scholarships are more than visas and dormitory assignments. They are one small pillar in a widening partnership between Somalia and Azerbaijan, an energy-rich nation with a deep tradition of technical training. The program builds on a string of agreements signed in Baku in February 2025, where Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pledged closer cooperation in education, energy, public service delivery and defense. Aliyev said at the time that Azerbaijani universities were already hosting Somali students, and that the intake would increase.
In July, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov went further, announcing that 20 scholarships would be reserved for Somali students in 2025. The latest cohort totals 28, suggesting both governments see academic exchange as a relatively low-cost, high-impact way to bind their interests and broaden their influence.
This is soft power at work: an investment in people, with returns measured in skills, networks, and goodwill. Baku’s scholarships form part of a state-funded international integration program, aimed at students from developing countries. It’s a familiar strand in the global competition for talent and friends. Türkiye has long attracted African students through its Türkiye Scholarships (YTB) scheme. China’s government scholarships underpin a sizable African student community in Nanjing, Beijing and Wuhan. Malaysia and Egypt run similar programs, often through Islamic or technical universities. Now Azerbaijan—a country whose own modern identity was forged in oil fields and universities—is staking a claim in this talent economy.
Why these disciplines matter for Somalia
There is a quiet pragmatism in the degree list: petroleum science, engineering, medicine, and computer science.
- Energy and engineering: Somalia is mapping its energy future. The country has been assessing offshore hydrocarbon potential and faces urgent infrastructure needs—from ports and roads to power grids and water systems. A generation of engineers trained in a place like Baku, whose own oil industry helped make it one of the world’s earliest energy capitals, brings know-how and a certain sensibility: that technical competence is national strategy.
- Medicine: Decades of conflict and underinvestment have left healthcare systems patchy and overstretched. The World Health Organization has repeatedly flagged severe shortages of trained medical personnel. Producing more Somali doctors, pharmacists, and health technologists is as much about dignity as it is about development.
- Computer science: From digital payments to government e-services and cybersecurity, Somalia’s risk-taking entrepreneurs and global diaspora are already building software on thin bandwidth. Structured training can turn that hustle into scale.
Somalia’s tertiary education sector is growing, with private universities sprouting in Mogadishu, Hargeisa, and Garowe, but capacity remains limited. The World Bank and UNESCO have noted that the country’s tertiary enrollment is among the lowest globally. The result is a chronic skills gap, where ambition outpaces the institutions built to sustain it.
South–South paths widening
The students stepping off that plane are also part of a wider shift: the rise of South–South student corridors. Rather than automatically looking to London, Paris or Washington, more African students are taking scholarships in Ankara, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing—and now Baku. The calculus includes language, faith, affordability, and a sense that the training is closely aligned with practical needs at home.
For Azerbaijan, the motivation is clear. As an energy producer whose engineers helped shape fields from the Caspian to Central Asia, it is exporting expertise and deepening ties in Africa and the Muslim world. For Somalia, it is a way to expand the pool of skills without waiting for domestic universities to catch up, and to diversify partnerships beyond traditional donors.
The path is not without questions. What guarantees are there that students will return and serve in public institutions or local industries? How will Somalia’s ministries and private firms absorb graduates at scale? Some countries require scholarship recipients to work in the public sector for a set period; others rely on moral suasion and the pull of family and home. Somalia’s millions-strong diaspora is a reminder that migration is often a strategy for survival—but also a resource. Return doesn’t always mean permanent: short stints, remote work, joint ventures, and faculty exchange can all feed a “brain circulation” that is arguably more realistic.
A small group with a wide horizon
Back at the airport, photos show young men and women clustered around embassy staff, clutching documents and the inevitable smartphones. Nineteen now; nine to follow. Their hosts had arranged the basics—orientation, accommodation, the bureaucratic triathlon of registration. The batch will disperse to Azerbaijani universities, just as another cohort will likely gather next year and the year after.
The Somali and Azerbaijani foreign ministers reiterated education as a priority in June on the sidelines of an Organization of Islamic Cooperation ministerial in Istanbul, where they agreed to form a Joint Intergovernmental Commission. The machinery of cooperation is turning. But the real test happens in classrooms, labs, and internships where these students will spend long months learning the hard parts: calculus before circuits, clinical safety before surgery, debugging before deploying.
It’s a long journey. But if you zoom out, the arrival of 28 students in Baku is a small but telling marker of how countries are navigating a crowded, fiercely practical century. Nations are building alliances student by student, lab by lab. And young Somalis are learning in places where oil shaped skylines and science underwrote modernity—a mirror of the ambitions they carry home.
Every scholarship story has two endings: the degree, and what comes after. The first is often the easier part. The second depends on whether governments can align opportunity with capacity, whether private firms open doors, and whether these new engineers, physicians and coders find their way back into systems that need them.
For now, they have what they need most: a runway, and a takeoff.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
