Somalias

Jubaland’s intelligence push tests Somalia’s fragile center-periphery balance KISMAYO — When Jubaland leader Ahmed Madobe unveiled a gleaming new headquarters for the Jubbaland Intelligence and Security Agency this month, he did more than cut a ribbon. Standing before a bank of monitors and satellite dishes, Madobe declared that his region’s spy service now outperforms the federal government’s National Intelligence and Security Agency. “When it comes to security information in the Horn of Africa, the agency everyone turns…

Somalia says overnight raid kills seven Al‑Shabaab fighters as counterinsurgency grinds on in Hiiraan Somalia’s intelligence service says its agents, working with international partners, killed seven Al‑Shabaab fighters in a three‑phase raid overnight in the country’s central Hiiraan region, a patch of territory that has swung back and forth between government forces and the al‑Qaida‑linked group over the past two years. In a statement released Tuesday, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said the…

Behind closed doors in Villa Somalia: former foes, fragile alliances MOGADISHU — In a sign of how fragile and fluid Somali politics remain, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud convened a private meeting at Villa Somalia this week with a who’s who of figures who recently left the Somali National Salvation Council. The gathering — attended by former Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, ex-Parliament Speaker Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman, and Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the one-time president of SouthWest State — has…

Somalia’s Donor Dollars Meet Local Politics: Hirshabelle’s District Choice Reopens Old Debates In Somalia’s Hirshabelle state, a seemingly technical decision — which district gets the next round of donor-backed support — has turned into a small window on a much larger question: who gets to be seen, heard, and funded in a federal system still finding its feet. The controversy touches the Somalia Recurrent Cost & Reform Financing (RCRF) Phase III program, an internationally funded effort, implemented by the Federal…

Global Gateway in Somalia: Investment with a Human Face — and Hard Questions MOGADISHU — When the European Union rolled out its Global Gateway initiative in Brussels this month, the message was simple: funnel European capital into connectivity projects across Africa, Asia and beyond, and build ties that can withstand geopolitical shocks. For Somalia, a country still rebuilding after decades of conflict, the program promises not just roads and ports but jobs and a stake in the global economy. The EU delegation in Mogadishu…

Power struggle in Somalia’s Hirshabelle spills into the open with Hiiraan governor sacked Somalia’s fragile federal experiment is feeling the strain again, this time in Hirshabelle, where President Ali Abdullahi Hussein Guudlawe has dismissed the governor of Hiiraan region amid a dispute over who collects taxes at Beledweyne’s Ugaas Khaliif Airport. It is a small airfield by global standards, but control over its revenues has become a proxy for power in a state where budgets are thin and authority is contested block by…

Somalia’s ID Deadline Tests the Promise of Digital Inclusion In a quiet Saturday statement that ignited a very noisy week on the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia’s National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) said it will stop issuing national ID cards for free after October 31, 2025. The line that got people moving was simple: “The National ID Card Registration Fee Exemption Period ends on October 31. Please take advantage of the opportunity and apply at your nearest NIRA Center!” Within hours, long queues…

Somalia’s Seat at East Africa’s Table: Why Mogadishu’s New EALA Delegation Matters A quiet milestone in Mogadishu In a bright room at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud welcomed Somalia’s first full slate of lawmakers to the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). The ceremony, following a parliamentary vote that selected nine representatives, was deliberately understated — no brass bands, no triumphal headlines. Yet the significance should not be missed. Less than a year after its…

Somalia’s government swats down ‘New Jubaland’ talk — but the rumor reveals deeper strains Somalia’s federal government has moved to tamp down rising chatter about a breakaway “New Jubaland” in the country’s southwest, a rumor that ricocheted through community meetings and WhatsApp groups long before officials stepped in. The denial is clear. The politics behind it are anything but. What the deputy minister said In an interview with the Somali outlet Arlaadi Media, Deputy Interior Minister Sadad Aliyow dismissed claims…

Somalia’s president presses for unity and service delivery as security gains remain fragile MOGADISHU — President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used this week’s cabinet meeting to argue that Somalia’s fragile recovery from years of conflict must now be matched by faster, tangible improvements in everyday life — from clinics and schools to the courts that citizens rely on. In a country where authority is often contested and public trust thin, Mohamud sought to recast progress not as military achievement alone but as a test of…