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Somalia’s Jan. 12 Cabinet decision to annul all agreements with the United Arab Emirates is more than a diplomatic rupture. It is a strategic reset framed around sovereignty, constitutional authority and the insistence that foreign engagement run through recognized national institutions. In a region where parallel arrangements and external rivalries often seep into domestic governance, Mogadishu is choosing consolidation over convenience. At the heart of the move is a simple claim: sovereignty is not a slogan but a system.…

Israel’s unilateral recognition of North Western State of Somalia as an independent state has jolted the Horn of Africa, triggering swift international pushback and raising fresh concerns about maritime security, legal precedent and regional stability. In Somalia, the move sparked immediate street protests. Abroad, governments across Africa, Europe and the Middle East — joined by the United States — moved quickly to restate Somalia’s territorial integrity. The African Union led with a reaffirmation of Somalia’s unity, a line…

NAIROBI — Thirty-one years ago this week, a Nigerian diplomat walked into a modest office at Wilson Airport and asked two Kenyan pilots to do something almost no one could know about. The mission: fly the body of Somalia’s ousted ruler, Mohamed Siad Barre, from Lagos to his hometown of Garbaharey for a swift Islamic burial — quietly, safely and without alerting authorities across half a continent. For the first time, one of those pilots, Hussein Mohamed Anshuur — a former Kenya Air Force captain and co-founder of Bluebird…

Somali Future Council urges Hassan Sheikh to convene election talks within a month, warns of crisis GAROWE, Somalia — The Somali Future Council on Monday renewed its call for President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to convene all political stakeholders within a month to agree on a clear and timely electoral framework, warning that further delay risks a constitutional and security crisis as the country nears another transfer of power. In a statement issued after a meeting of the Future Council’s Technical Committee in Garowe, members…

Yemen’s southern separatists on Friday unveiled an interim constitution for a breakaway state and demanded acceptance from rival factions, a dramatic escalation that widened the rift inside the Saudi-led coalition and risked opening a new front in the country’s long war. The Southern Transitional Council (STC), backed by the United Arab Emirates, framed the document as a declaration of independence for the south under the name “State of South Arabia,” mirroring the borders of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen…

Somalia’s child-protection reckoning after a teenager’s killing — and a rare death sentence The killing of 14-year-old orphan Saabirin Saylaan in Galkayo has jolted Somalia into a painful examination of how the state, communities and families protect — and fail — their children. A court in Puntland State convicted caregiver Hodan Mohamud Diiriye, 34, of murder and sentenced her to death, an exceptional punishment in a child-abuse case that underscores both the scale of public outrage and the fragility of Somalia’s protective…

MOGADISHU — Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi warned Monday that any Israeli presence in North Western State of Somalia would be treated as a military target, escalating tensions days after Israel announced it would recognize the self-declared republic in the Horn of Africa. “We consider any Israeli presence in North Western State of Somalia a military target for our armed forces, as it constitutes aggression against Somalia and Yemen, and a threat to the security of the region,” al-Houthi said, according to a…

Somalia begins counting votes after Mogadishu’s landmark one-person, one-vote poll Mogadishu — Somalia’s National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission on Thursday night said ballot counting is underway after polls closed across the capital for the Banadir Regional Council elections, the city’s first one-person, one-vote ballot in more than five decades. Commission Chairperson Abdikarim Ahmed Hassan told national media that voting ran from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time and proceeded calmly and in an orderly manner…

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday it has uncovered more than a million additional documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, delaying a congressionally mandated release of records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act as officials review the material for legally required redactions. In a social media post, the department said the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI informed Justice officials of the trove, prompting DOJ lawyers to “work around the clock”…

Mogadishu’s municipal elections are more than a local contest; they are a stress test for Somalia’s long-promised transition from elite bargaining to citizen-driven governance. If they hold, they could become the clearest step yet toward the country’s first direct national elections in more than half a century. For decades, Somalia’s political order has been defined by indirect electoral arrangements and power-sharing formulas negotiated among clans and political elites. Those frameworks helped stabilize a state battered by…