Somalia

Climate change and its security implications are placing considerable pressures on peacebuilding efforts in Somalia. The country is currently experiencing its worst drought in over four decades, with an unprecedented fourth consecutive failed rainy season recently concluded in May 2022.

The war with Al-Shabaab’s Islamist insurgency has dragged on for fifteen years. As it reviews its options, Somalia’s new government should look into what room there might be for dialogue with the group. The alternative is more fighting with no end in sight.

Somalia's president (Hassan Sheikh Mohamud) nominated on Wednesday Hamza Abdi Barre, a former chairman of the Jubbaland state election commission, as prime minister.

Following the recent election that brought President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud into power, the Security Council today extended until 31 October 2022 the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) — as set out in resolution 2158 (2014), deciding further that it should continue to implement that mandate in accordance with resolution 2592 (2021).

US President Joe Biden on Monday authorized the return of several hundred American troops to Somalia, reversing a decision by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Somalia handed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud the presidency for a second time following Sunday's long-overdue election in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which is confronting an Islamist insurgency and the threat of famine.

Somalia’s presidential elections will be held on May 15, signalling an end to more than a year of delays in establishing a new government.

[…] The Burundian government on Wednesday said 10 soldiers under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) were killed in the raid on their camp, but the militants suggest that the number of peacekeepers killed is much higher than the Burundi government is reporting.

Somalia's prime minister has asked African Union soldiers to take over protection of lawmakers as they pick new leadership, after warning police and intelligence officials not to interfere in the long-overdue elections.

Terrorist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a mortar attack on Somalia’s parliament Monday that injured at least six people during a joint session. Somalia’s newly elected members of parliament were meeting Monday to approve procedures for the election of speakers when the grounds were hit by a mortar attack.