Somalia

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.

The United States is again targeting fighters with the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab terror group in Somalia, launching its second airstrike in the past four days following a nearly six-month hiatus that began when President Joe Biden took office.

Somali terrorist group al-Shabab has threatened to attack electoral delegates who will be choosing lawmakers in parliamentary elections beginning next week. The Islamist militant group has threatened to disrupt the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in the Horn of Africa country.Artikeltext

Somalia has taken another crucial step in its bid to conduct much-delayed elections, after opposition groups changed their stance and accepted an electoral boss they had initially rejected.

U.S. military officials are preparing a proposal to send a special operations contingent back into Somalia, where security conditions have worsened in the months since nearly 700 troops were pulled out of the country, a news report said Tuesday. The plan, which would involve several dozen troops, hasn’t yet been formally presented to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, The New York Times reported. 

It was the deadliest attack in the capital Mogadishu for 18 months.