Vol 61 No 15 | SOMALIA Ugly compromises 23rd July 2020 President Farmajo is pushing through a flawed electoral system and the fallout has led to demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital The main response of the government to the crowds that have gathered to protest the new electoral law and the postponement of elections is to fire shots over...
Vol 61 No 12 | SOMALIA Shabaab’s surge 11th June 2020 The Islamist militia is making new strides in the north-east. It may even have designs on Ethiopia’s troubled Somali region and Somaliland While most attention focuses on the preparations for elections later in the year, Al Shabaab is targeting Puntland in a campaign of assassination, and its operations throughout north-eastern...
Vol 61 No 10 | SOMALIA Who wants an election? 14th May 2020 Polls are due at the end of the year but after three years of preparation there is still little prospect of one person, one vote A fractious and increasingly angry political scene – dominated by growing resentment of the federal government –; is one of several reasons the vision of representative democracy is...
Vol 61 No 6 | KENYASOMALIA Frontier fracas 19th March 2020 Conflict flares between Mogadishu and Nairobi over Jubaland. Kenya wants a buffer zone but Farmajo has other ideas Months of tensions between Mogadishu and its southern state of Jubaland came to the boil in early March and spilled across the Kenyan border in a violent face-off...
Vol 60 No 18 | KENYASOMALIA Jubaland row heats up oil tiff 13th September 2019 Tensions between Kenya and Somalia are rising fast over a dispute about politics and money in a Somali province Separate but inter-related arguments over elections in Jubaland and offshore oil blocks claimed by both Kenya and Somalia appear to be coming to a head in the wake...
Vol 60 No 12 | SOMALIA Washington stirs the UN pot 14th June 2019 State Department choices prompt a resurgence of anti-US sentiment as oil goes up for grabs The nomination on 30 May of the United States diplomat James Swan as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Somalia has deepened divisions within the country's political class,...
Vol 60 No 10 | SOMALIA Farmajo's big push 17th May 2019 The President is planning to launch a new anti-Al Shabaab military offensive. But the auguries are not favourable New talks are taking place between the government of President Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed 'Farmajo', the United States, Ethiopia and the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) to launch...
Vol 60 No 8 | SOMALIA Out for the count 19th April 2019 It was hardly surprising that government soldiers should abandon their posts after not being paid Army day in Somalia is 12 April. But March was mutiny month. The country is still counting the cost after the Somali National Army abandoned three major bases...
Vol 60 No 5 | BURUNDISOMALIA The cost of war 8th March 2019 After a furious but well-hidden row, Burundi is set to withdraw 1,000 soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) force immediately; 4,532 Burundian troops will remain.
Vol 60 No 4 | SOMALIA Shabaab fight in high gear 22nd February 2019 The Nairobi attack has sparked an intense new round of action by all the combatants in Somalia The Al Shabaab conflict has reached a new level of intensity and bloodshed following the attack in Nairobi on 15 January in which 25 people, including four attackers,...