Somalia

Somalia's election commission has announced it will hold parliamentary and presidential polls in April and May next year, but critics say the decision will lead to more conflict in a deeply fragmented country facing a long-running Islamist insurgency. The election commission said on Thursday that parliamentary polls would be held on 15 April, followed by a presidential vote scheduled for 15 May.

US President Donald Trump called Somaliland a “totally different country” that has “nothing to do” with Somalia during a political rally in Ohio on 12 October, turbocharging speculation that the US could be moving closer to recognising the breakaway region’s independence. 

Children have been killed and injured in fresh fighting in Baidoa, in Somalia’s South West State, where families were already facing severe hunger and other overlapping crises. … In the past few weeks, clashes have broken out in Baidoa, the state’s largest city, between Government forces and fighters loyal to the former regional president, who was ousted in March.

Intense clashes have broken out in the Somali city of Baidoa between government forces and fighters loyal to the ousted regional president. … Fighting erupted in Baidoa on August 17, when Bay Regional Hospital reported four deaths and 94 people wounded, and again on September 3, when 71 people were treated for injuries and one death was recorded.

The United States reportedly plans to extend its backing of the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), which is vital to the African Union’s key counterterrorism force remaining in Somalia, into 2027. Reuters reported on September 18 that the United States has circulated a diplomatic note indicating that it will extend its support to UNSOS through 2027.

Somalia’s military says it has repelled an attack by two armed groups in Baidoa, the largest city in Somalia’s South West State. In a statement posted on X, Somalia’s Defence Ministry said “militias” loyal to ousted Governor Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen launched the attack early on Thursday morning.

The African Union authorised its mission in Somalia to join federal government forces in military operations in South West State against Al-Shabaab and armed groups it described as affiliated with the militants, according to an internal AU memorandum reviewed by Somalia Today.

The World Food Programme (WFP), the UN agency providing food assistance, said around one third of Somalia’s population is now facing acute hunger, with nearly two million children expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.

Somalia’s army has said it has driven opposition fighters out of Baidoa, the largest city in Somalia’s South West State, after hours of heavy fighting.

Armed forces from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland state have attacked a camp held by federal government troops, in the latest flare-up between regional leaders and the Somali government. Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni told a news conference on Wednesday in the regional capital Garowe that the assault was “a planned security operation” to send a “clear message to anyone working against the Puntland government”.