Somalia

African Union mission in Somalia teeters as $180 million shortfall threatens gains against al‑Shabab MOGADISHU — The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) is confronting a funding cliff that could unravel years of hard-won progress against the Islamist insurgency, AU officials warned at the United Nations General Assembly. With about 11,000 troops from Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda deployed across Somali towns and desert tracks, the mission now faces an estimated $180 million…

U.S. Embassy in Somalia Scales Back Services as Washington Shutdown Ripples Overseas Mogadishu — The U.S. Embassy in Somalia said Wednesday it is curtailing some regular operations following a federal government shutdown in Washington, underscoring how a budget stalemate in Congress can reverberate far beyond the Beltway and into one of the world’s most complex diplomatic environments. “Due to the lapse in appropriations, this X account will not be updated regularly until full operations resume, with the exception of…

Uganda and Somalia Seek Deeper Ties — But Will MoUs Become Markets? KAMPALA — When Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud meet in Kampala on Oct. 7–8 for the Second Joint Permanent Commission (JPC) Investment and Business Summit, they will do more than pose for the customary handshakes and cameras. The pair are expected to sign three memorandums of understanding on trade and investment promotion, tourism development and diplomatic collaboration — documents that, if implemented, could nudge a historically…

Somalia deploys newly trained Custodial Corps to front lines as fight with al‑Shabab intensifies MOGADISHU — Somalia has rushed newly trained members of its Custodial Corps to embattled front lines, a sign of how the government is widening its war effort as clashes with al‑Shabab escalate across the country’s south and center. Maj. Gen. Mahad Abdirahman Aden, who commands the corps, said Tuesday the fresh contingent will reinforce units already engaged in the field and help “hold the line” in contested areas. “The new…

Somalia’s arrest of a European national exposes how diaspora, weak states and new tech collide in human trafficking MOGADISHU — Somali authorities this month detained a European national of Somali origin in an operation that underscores how transnational trafficking networks exploit fractured governance, diasporic ties and young people’s drive to leave. The arrest — flagged after travel documents showed irregularities during screening — was swiftly handed to the Criminal Investigations Department, officials said, and it has…

At UN Week, Somalia and Allies Sound Alarm Over Funding Gap for AU Mission NEW YORK — Inside a packed conference room just off the United Nations General Assembly floor, Somalia and its closest partners issued an unusually blunt warning: if the world does not step up with reliable money, hard-won security gains against al-Shabab could begin to unravel within months. The urgency is not abstract. The African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) — the AU-led force that helps secure towns, main roads,…

U.S. launches fresh strike against ISIS-Somalia in Cal-Miskaad mountains MOGADISHU — The U.S. military carried out a precision airstrike late last week in the Cal-Miskaad mountain range near Bosaso, targeting fighters from the Islamic State in Somalia (ISIS-Somalia), U.S. Africa Command said Monday. The operation is the latest in a sustained campaign of air attacks that U.S. officials say are aimed at degrading the group’s ability to threaten American interests, Somali forces and regional allies. The strike, conducted in…

Trump’s jab at Ilhan Omar isn’t just a feud. It’s a mirror of America’s anxieties. When former President Donald Trump told reporters he had asked Somalia’s president to “take back” Rep. Ilhan Omar, the line landed like a punchline in the room—and a gut punch across the Somali diaspora. Omar, the Somali-born Democrat from Minnesota and one of the most visible Muslim women in American politics, answered in kind, calling Trump “a lying buffoon” and urging the public not to dignify his claims. The exchange may sound familiar.…

Somalia as a Stage: Can Mogadishu Keep Egypt and Ethiopia from Turning It Into Another Front? When Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the BBC Somali Service this week that his country “will not be a host to proxy wars” between Egypt and Ethiopia, he was addressing more than a regional spat over Nile water and peacekeepers. He was speaking to a fragile nation that has long been a canvas for others’ ambitions — and to a neighbourhood where resource rivalries are increasingly exported as power politics. Mohamud’s…

Somalia’s president rejects the idea of a proxy war as Egyptian and Ethiopian forces prepare to serve side by side President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s calm confidence — “there will be no proxy war” — is as much a diplomatic posture as it is a strategic calculation. His reassurance, given in an interview with the BBC, comes as Egypt prepares to send troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission that already includes Ethiopian units. The announcement has unexpectedly exposed one of the Horn of Africa’s most…