Somalia

The United Nations Security Council has urged Somalia’s feuding government leaders to resolve their disagreements through dialogue and give top priority to holding long-delayed national elections this year. The 15-member body in a statement on Saturday also called on the federal government and regional states “to ensure that any political differences do not divert from united action against al-Shabab and other militant groups”.

Somalia's president announced Thursday that he has suspended the hiring and firing powers of the prime minister during the Horn of Africa country's slow-moving election period. … Farmajo accused Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble of making rash decisions, which he said "could lead the country into [a] political and security crisis."

Somalia's president and prime minister appear locked in a power struggle over the country's spy chief and the death of a cybersecurity agent. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble this week suspended the head of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, Fahad Fassin, for failing to investigate the agent’s death. But the president rebuked the move and on Wednesday appointed Yasin as a national security adviser.

Amid funding challenges, the African Union (AU) will deploy a reconfigured force of the continental body’s peacekeeping outfit in Somalia for a proposed five-year period after the expiry of the current mandate at the end of this year.

The Security Council today extended until 31 May 2022 the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), requesting it to strengthen its presence across the country “as the security situation allows”.

A group of Somali opposition presidential candidates has rejected the government's plan for upcoming elections.  The rejection could result in yet another delay for the Somali polls.

The United Nations and the African Union urged Somalia on Thursday to hold already delayed national elections this October despite attempted intimidation by Islamist militants. “Preparations for election security are key due to the continuing threat posed by al-Shabab,” U.N. Special Representative for Somalia James Swan told a meeting of the Security Council.

Political strides are breathing new hope into the country’s fragile State-building process, driven by an electoral agreement signed by Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, and the heads of Somalia’s federal member states, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Thursday.

The Somali government has formally rejected African Union recommendations for a scaled-down peacekeeping presence in the Horn of Africa country, calling a report and its proposals “devoid of realities.”

Somalia has postponed elections that were were due to start on Sunday after months of delays in the deeply unstable Horn of Africa country. Indirect parliamentary and presidential polls were due to open on July 25 with four days of voting for the upper house by state delegates. The election cycle was due to end with a presidential poll on October 10.