Somalia

The American military is asking President Biden to station several hundred commandos in Somalia to help blunt the spread of al Qaeda’s aggressive local affiliate, al-Shabaab, according to  U.S. officials.

[…] The AMISOM mandate expires on March 31, but the UN Security Council is expected to vote on March 30 to replace it with a new mission, the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).

The United States government has announced visa restrictions to Somali officials and individuals, accusing them of “undermining the democratic process in Somalia”, after yet another delay in the parliamentary elections.

Somalia’s leaders must put aside their differences and urgently conclude a credible election process, the UN’s senior official in the country told the Security Council on Tuesday, noting that national elections are now more than a year behind schedule and women’s representation remains significantly off-track.

AMISOM was a child of necessity, birthed in the context of an exacerbated Somali conflict and the emergence of the ICU in 2006 as the dominant force in the fight for the control of Mogadishu.

Organisers of Somalia’s much-delayed elections say the polls have picked up the “right pace”, assuring citizens that they will meet the February 25 deadline to conclude voting.

On January 22, news began breaking of agreement between the Somali government and the African Union (AU) Commission on the future of the AU intervention mission in Somalia.

At least four people died and nine were others wounded Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant near an army barracks in the Somali capital, police officials and witnesses said.

At least nine people were killed Wednesday in a suicide car bombing that targeted a government security convoy near the airport in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. … The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they targeted a convoy escorting Somali government and foreign officials.