Somalia

Heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants attacked a strategic island in southern Somalia on Wednesday, clashing with state paramilitary forces stationed in the semi-autonomous Jubaland region, officials and the Islamist group said.

[…] AUSSOM is set to receive only around half of its required funding for 2025, adding to substantial arrears from previous years, while UNSOS will operate without a quarter of its budget. There is no funding pledged for AUSSOM for 2026 and little indication that this financial situation will improve over the next few years.

Somalia has severed all agreements with the United Arab Emirates, annulling deals spanning key port operations, security cooperation and defence, citing “harmful actions” that undermine the country’s unity and sovereignty. … A government source close to the decision told Al Jazeera there was anger in Mogadishu at the UAE consolidating influence in Somalia’s breakaway and autonomous regions.

The US has suspended all assistance to the government of Somalia, alleging that officials destroyed a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse and seized "donor-funded food aid". 

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar arrived in Somaliland for the first high-level diplomatic visit since it became the first country in the world to recognise the breakaway region’s independence, triggering condemnation and concerns that Palestinians may be forcibly expelled by Israel there. 

Somalia is at a defining moment. Decades of investment in state-building is threatened by a fragmented political landscape, underfunding of the African Union’s military shield, and a humanitarian system running on fumes.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the African Union Support Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) before it expires at the end of December, officials said Monday. In addition to the mandate renewal, the Council will review updates to sanctions under resolution 2713 against Al-Shabaab, including maritime restrictions, which are set to expire on 13 December.

A major funding dispute is threatening the future of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), raising fears that hard-fought gains against militant group al-Shabaab could unravel. During a High-Level Meeting on AUSSOM Financing held on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80) in New York, African Union (AU) officials warned of a $180 million budget shortfall that risks paralyzing the mission. 

The group’s influence extends far beyond its rural strongholds. It directly governs nearly a quarter of all district capitals in Somalia, and co-governs almost all areas nominally held by the federal government outside the autonomous region of Puntland and the breakaway republic of Somaliland. 

In a landmark move to address one of the most persistent threats to its security, Somalia has launched its first-ever National Counter-IED Strategy, praised by the United Nations as an “important step forward” in the fight against improvised explosives widely used by the Al-Shabaab militant group.