Somalias

Somalia’s Oil Gamble: Promise, Pitfalls and a Narrowing Window In a region where new oil and gas frontiers can redraw maps and fortunes, Somalia has long carried a paradox: abundant potential beneath the ground, and little to show above it. Today, with fresh licenses signed and seismic boats in the water, the country stands at another inflection point. The question is not whether hydrocarbons lie under Somali soil and sea—the geological hints are there—but whether the politics, contracts and institutions can finally bring…

Somalia’s Political Crossroads: A Call for Electoral Unity MOGADISHU — As Somalia grapples with an ever-complex political landscape, former President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has sounded a clarion call for urgency and unity in electoral matters. In his latest press conference held in Mogadishu, the leader of the opposition Salvation Forum vehemently opposed any attempts to extend the current government’s constitutional mandate, stating, “There is still ample time to conduct a credible and inclusive election before May 15,…

Analysis: Northeastern State’s warning shot tests Somalia’s fragile federal bargain Somalia’s most politically assertive region, Northeastern State, has accused President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of trampling the country’s basic rules — and it’s not just a routine war of words. In a sharply worded statement from Garowe, Northeastern State’s leadership warned that what it calls constitutional overreach from the federal center risks tipping the country into crisis unless Somalis agree on a shared path to the next elections. They…

Somalia moves against online defamation. The bigger story is who decides what’s dangerous speech—and when In Mogadishu’s humming tea stalls and on the diaspora’s WhatsApp groups from Minneapolis to Mombasa, politics is now a permanent scroll. Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General stepped squarely into that stream this week, announcing a legal push against what it called online insults, defamation, social incitement, offensive images, immoral content, false information, and posts that “promote societal division.” Some…

Mandera’s uneasy morning: Allegations of Jubaland training on Kenyan soil test a fragile border On a normal school day, the dusty yard of Border Point 1 Primary in Mandera Town would fill with children in blue uniforms and plastic sandals, their chalkboards listing multiplication tables and Swahili proverbs. Instead, the gates are shut. And this week, the school became the unexpected center of a regional security storm when Mandera County officials alleged that Jubaland regional forces from Somalia are training there—inside…

On Turkey’s Victory Day, new Somali officers step forward in Ankara Under a late-summer sky in Ankara, the brass of military bands mingled with the steady tap of parade boots and the low murmur of families craning for a better view. On a day when Turkey commemorates its hard-won independence, a new class of officers—including a cohort from Somalia—crossed the stage at the National Defence University’s War College to collect their diplomas. Somali Defence Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi and Somalia’s ambassador to Turkey,…

Somalia’s new Northeast State tests fragile federalism as favored candidates win amid interference claims In the sunbaked streets of Las Anod, the epicenter of a year of upheaval on Somalia’s northern rim, lawmakers this weekend chose a president and vice president for a new political entity they call the Northeast State. The result — a victory for Abdiqadir Ahmed Aw-Ali, known widely as Firdhiye, and his running mate Abdirashid Yusuf Jibril — was greeted in Mogadishu as a milestone for state-building. It was also met with…

Firdhiye Wins Leadership of Somalia’s New Northeastern State in Las Anod Vote Amid Allegations of Federal Interference How the vote unfolded Las Anod, a city that has lived at the edge of maps and the center of Somalia’s political crosswinds, delivered a decisive vote on Saturday. Abdikadir Ahmed Ali Firdhiye, a former interim leader of the territory known locally as SSC-Khatumo, was elected president of the newly formed Northeastern state after a tense and closely watched contest. The ballot shifted dramatically between…

Celebrating Dual Identity: The North Western State of Somalia-Welsh Community in Cardiff Hargeisa (AX) — In a modest community hall in Grangetown, Cardiff, the flags of Wales and North Western State of Somalia fluttered side by side. It was a quiet yet powerful testament to the dual identities embraced by the city's North Western State of Somalia-Welsh community. This week marked the 65th anniversary of North Western State of Somalia's independence from Britain, a momentous occasion celebrated by around 50 attendees,…

Somalia's Cry for Gaza: A Diplomatic Call to Conscience at the UN In the storied halls of the United Nations, where history is often recorded in resonant speeches and urgent pleas, Somalia's ambassador, Abukar Osman Baale, delivered a message that pierced through the routine deliberations. His words reached out across cultures and continents, sounding an alarm over the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. "What we are witnessing is not security. It is collective punishment, and it is genocide," Baale proclaimed, his…