Somalia: Southwest Presidency Denies Dialogue Requests with FGS After Laftagareen’s Re-election

Somalia: Southwest Presidency Rejects Claims of Dialogue Request with FGS After Laftagareen’s Re-election

BAIDOA, Somalia — Southwest State’s presidency on Sunday moved quickly to quash reports that newly re-elected regional leader Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed, widely known as Laftagareen, had sought formal talks with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

The denial from Baidoa came only hours after social media posts claimed Laftagareen had contacted Villa Somalia to open a dialogue in the wake of his victory in the regional leadership contest. Southwest officials rejected those assertions outright, describing them as “baseless and fabricated” and saying there had been no communication of that kind between the two offices.

The relationship between the federal government in Mogadishu and Southwest State has been strained for months, with disputes centered on the country’s electoral roadmap and the deployment of federal security forces in the region. 

International partners had been monitoring the post-election atmosphere in Baidoa for any hint of a political easing, but the swift rebuttal from Laftagareen’s administration indicates the stalemate remains in place.

Southwest officials said their immediate priority is maintaining regional stability and finishing internal political processes, not entering into fresh negotiations with the central government. The federal presidency had not issued any formal response to the claims or to the denial from Baidoa.

AXADLETM