Vol 59 No 24 | SOMALIA Poll fight for Farmajo 7th December 2018 A former Shabaab leader stands a good chance of election in South West State and Mogadishu is determined to stop him President Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed 'Farmajo' and his government experienced temporary relief on 2 December when the electoral commission supervising South West State's presidential election postponed the poll –...
Vol 59 No 22 | SOMALIAUNITED STATES US strikes, Shabaab gains 9th November 2018 US operations increase but the Islamists are showing resilience. The government is trying to manage expectations The most lethal United States drone strike against Al Shabaab in over a year killed about 60 fighters at Aga Adde, near Galharere in the Central Region, on...
Vol 59 No 20 | SOMALIA Shelter for favouritism 12th October 2018 The case of a business manager who lost his job because he was not in the inner circle of President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' is discouraging diaspora investors....
Vol 59 No 19 | SOMALIA Money worries 28th September 2018 The federal patchwork is barely holding together while a new currency launches. Farmajo's absence in New York is raising questions The Finance Minister of the federal government, Abdirahman Bayle, believed he had good reason to congratulate himself at the end of a week of talks with the International...
Vol 59 No 17 | ETHIOPIASOMALIA Abiy dials down Pax Ethiopia 10th August 2018 Addis's relations with its neighbours may be changing as radically as those on the domestic front. A new deal with Somalia could be in the offing As soon as he was appointed Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed was as eager to embrace peace and normalisation with neighbouring states as to reform the regime at home....
Vol 59 No 15 | SOMALIA ISIS’s nemesis 27th July 2018 Al Shabaab offers its Da’ish competitors a simple choice: recant or face execution The early days of Da'ish in Somalia were not auspicious. The leader of Somalia's version of the pan-regional and Middle Eastern Islamist movement also known as 'Islamic State'...
Vol 59 No 15 | SOMALIAEUROPEAN UNION Farmajo's Brussels win 27th July 2018 At the meeting of donor countries in Brussels on 17 July, the European Commission pledged €200 million to President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo's' government. The agreement includes €100...
Vol 59 No 13 | ETHIOPIASOMALIA A proconsul retires 29th June 2018 The leading representative of the Ethiopian security services in Somalia, Colonel Gebregziabher Alemseged, better known in Somalia as Colonel Gebre, has been recalled. Since 2002 Colonel Gebre had...
Vol 59 No 11 | SOMALIA Shabaab takes to the air 1st June 2018 Far from being on the brink of defeat, Al Shabaab is improving its propaganda and still holding its own on the military front Al Shabaab's leader, Abu Ubaydah, made a major speech on jihadist broadcast media on 18 May marking the beginning of Ramadan and setting out his political stall, scotching...
Vol 59 No 10 | SOMALIA Proxies, powers, and presidents 8th May 2018 Qatar and the UAE, along with a host of bit players, fought their latest battle in Somalia over whose man got to be the new Speaker of Parliament Months of vicious intrigue centring on the rivalry between the United Arab Emirates and its declared enemy, Qatar, ended on 30 April when Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman became the...