Somalias

Why Hassan Sheikh’s Addis visit matters: a recalibration in the Horn At a glance When Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrived in Addis Ababa this week for talks with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the official line was familiar: friendly neighbours discussing “bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.” Behind the diplomatic language, however, lay a fraught effort by Mogadishu to reshape the political map of southern Somalia — and to pull a wary Ethiopia into the middle of a struggle that has implications for…

Jubaland’s UN complaint lays bare a widening rift in Somalia’s fragile federal experiment KISMAYO — The latest escalation between Mogadishu and the semi-autonomous Jubaland state, culminating in a formal complaint lodged at the United Nations Office in Somalia, is not just another local spat. It is a symptom of a deeper, unresolved contest over power, identity and the shape of Somali federalism — and it raises uncomfortable questions about how fragile post-conflict states manage the tug between central authority and…

Somalia’s Parliament Approves Long-Awaited Human Rights Commission, Signaling a New Chapter for Accountability Mogadishu — Somalia’s Federal Parliament on Saturday approved the country’s first independent Human Rights Commission, a long-promised institution meant to investigate abuses, advise government, and help align the nation’s laws with international standards after decades of conflict and fragile governance. The vote, taken in a packed session chaired by the Speaker, passed overwhelmingly: 142 lawmakers voted in…

Somalia at a Crossroads: moving beyond emergency fixes to durable statecraft Somalia has achieved one of the landmark technical milestones of post‑conflict recovery—completion of HIPC debt relief in December 2023 and continued engagement with the IMF under an Extended Credit Facility—but the country’s deeper fractures are widening rather than closing. IMF staff forecasts for 2025 now point to growth near 3 percent, down from about 4 percent in 2024, and officials warn the economy is vulnerable to political paralysis,…

Mohamud’s Visit to Kismayo: A Fragile Gesture Toward Reconciliation KISMAYO, Somalia — When Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud travels to Kismayo this weekend for talks with Jubaland’s leader Ahmed “Madobe” Mohamed, he will be stepping into a political landscape that has been scarred by years of public acrimony, private deals and military showdowns. The trip — brokered quietly by Nairobi and welcomed, cautiously, by regional capitals — is less a triumph than a test of whether local rivals can move from brinkmanship to…

Al‑Shabaab’s War Chest: How a Militant Tax System Fuels a Comeback in Somalia A militant economy hiding in plain sight The hardest thing to see in Somalia’s long war is often the most obvious: the receipts. A new assessment by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point says al‑Shabaab, al‑Qaida’s Somali affiliate, is now the network’s financial powerhouse—pulling in an estimated $100 million to $200 million a year. That money isn’t just paying for bullets. It’s rebuilding a parallel state. The report, The Global State…

Somali Politics Spill Into Nairobi Again — And Mogadishu Pushes Back It is a familiar scene in East African diplomacy: Somali politicians gathering in a Nairobi hotel to hash out the country’s future far from Mogadishu’s checkpoints and political heat. This week, that well-worn script met a forceful rebuttal from Somalia’s defense minister, who said enough is enough. In a sharply worded post, Defense Minister Ahmed Macallin Fiqi condemned a Nairobi meeting of opposition figures and regional leaders — among them Puntland…

Somali opposition forms “Somalia Future Council” as political clock ticks In a conciliatory — and potentially combustible — move, prominent Somali leaders gathered in Nairobi this week to unveil a new opposition coalition they call the “Somalia Future Council.” Brought together by regional heavyweights and veteran national figures, the alliance aims to shape the country’s fraught political transition as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term edges toward its final months. Who’s in the room matters The coalition combines…

Somalia’s Skies Welcome a New Captain — and a Revival of Possibility At dawn in Mogadishu, when the ocean breeze carries the call to prayer over the runway and the heat hasn’t yet settled on the tarmac, a young captain strides toward her aircraft with the calm of routine and the knowledge that nothing about this is ordinary. Headset in hand, checklist tucked under her arm, Captain Yasmin Abdi Farah powers up the cockpit of a Maandeeq Air jet bound for Nairobi. A familiar route, yes—but the story it tells is new. Yasmin,…

U.S. man from Minnesota pleads guilty to ties with ISIS affiliate in Somalia WASHINGTON — A naturalized U.S. citizen from Minnesota pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from his links to an Islamic State affiliate operating in Somalia, authorities said, in a case that underscores persistent efforts by foreign extremist groups to recruit supporters among diaspora communities in the West. Abdisatar Ahmed Hassan, 23, entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul. Prosecutors say Hassan tried twice…