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 A Somali lawmaker casts her vote to elect a new president, inside Mogadishu airport, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 8, 2017 Somalia’s electoral commission has announced that upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections will not take place on time, as scheduled. The chairperson of the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC), Halima Ismail Ibrahim, has told the Lower House of the parliament that political differences, insecurity, flooding and COVID-19 have hampered the commission’s work schedule. The parliamentary elections were scheduled for Nov. 27; the president’s term ends on Feb. 8, 2021. Ibrahim says neither deadline can be met. Ibrahim says the biometric registration necessary for holding popular election as stated in the electoral law cannot be completed in time. She said buying the registration equipment, securing registration sites, conducting public awareness, registering voters, issuing a list of voters, registering political parties and the candi

The US-trained Somali special forces unit, Danab, has launched a massive military operation against Al-Shabaab positions, taking control of at least four villages near the port city of Kismayo in Lower Juba region, south of the country. A senior SNA official reported via phone that the troops seized Janaa-Abdale, Helishid, Mayonde, and Garascebe villages where the militants have been plotting relentless attacks for years. He said there was stiff resistance by Al-Shabab militants who have engaged the government forces in a heavy gunfight before vacating the areas. The local official said the government forces were now in control of the four villages which al-Shabab had controlled for years and vowed to extend the military operation to the other militant strongholds. The latest operation comes amid heightened vigilance by Somalia's forces who have launched operations targeting southern Somalia, in response to the increasing terror attacks in the Horn of Africa nation.

Somalia joins the league of country’s that cannot hold elections, not because of the coronavirus as in the case of Ethiopia but because of preparatory challenges, the elections chief has disclosed. According to National Independent Electoral Commission head, Halima Ismail Ibrahim, the NIEC has ruled out holding elections which were scheduled to hold on November 27. She told lawmakers that the earliest an election could hold in the country was in March 2021. In her address to the lower house of parliament, she presented two options – an election based on biometric registration which would be possible in August 2021 or a manual-based registration that can be held in March 2021. The issue of upcoming elections has been a big issue in the Horn of Africa country with incumbent Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo certain to seek re-election. A united opposition front, involving two former presidents, is also lacing its boots to challenge him. The last poll was in February 2017 when aft

Somalia’s special forces liberated at least four villages in Lower Juba, southern Somalia, from al-Shabaab terrorists, a military official said on Wednesday. The liberated villages included Hawaljiri, Bernasey, yaq-Bishaar and Osbo. Hassan Adan Iraqi, a military commander in the region, told Somali military radio that they killed at least six fighters belonging to al-Shabaab during the operation. This came hours after Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed appointed new military commanders. “The president appointed Brig. Gen. Abdulhamid Mohamed Dirir as the new chief commander for the Somali navy force and Brig. Gen. Abas Ali Amin as the new commander for the infantry troops,” Somali state house said in a statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday

Somalia has flagged more than 100 Iranian ships fishing illegally in the Horn of Africa country, which boasts the longest coastline in the mainland Africa. Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Abdullahi Warsame said the Iranian fishing vessels entered Somali waters between January 2019 and April 2020. "Approximately 112 Iranian fishing vessels were identified on automatic identification system transponders from within the Somalia exclusive economic zone. "The presence of the Iranian fleets in Somalia waters remains a longstanding concern of the Federal Republic of Somalia," Warsame added. The ships are said to have originated from the Iranian ports of Tiyab, Ramin, Konarak, and Banda-e Jask. Maritime experts classify Somalia among the countries with the weakest maritime security in the world. This has led to unreported, unregulated and illegal fishing, which is destabilizing local fishers who cannot compete with foreign trawlers. In a local media re

When the Foreign Minister of Somaliland, Yasin Faratoon, mentioned the first official meeting between Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his Somaliland counterpart Muse Bihi Abdi in February, there was speculation about its purpose. Organised originally through the mediation of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa, we were then surprised by another conference held a few days ago in Djibouti. What are the reasons for these discussions? The importance of having fresh talks between the two Somalias is agreed by everyone in the West, given that it is not in its best interest for Somalia to be split into North and South. Such a split could lead to Russia or China seizing the opportunity to support one side against the other. This is what Russia has done in Libya for the sake of oil, helping Khalifa Haftar’s forces with weapons and mercenaries and thus making itself a significant party in Libyan politics. For the West, it is time for Somalia to be unite

A suicide bomber's explosives were detonated outside a Turkish military training base in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, killing at least two people, police said on Tuesday. It was the first time the Turkish base in Mogadishu, Turkey's largest overseas military base, had been attacked by the al-Qaeda-linked rebel group al-Shabab. The Somalia-based group quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Radio al-Furqan, one of the group's radio affiliates. Somali government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar told Anadolu news agency that security guards shot the bomber who was trying to enter the military facility. "He pretended to be a trainee at the Turkey-Somali military academy but was shot and exploded outside the camp, killing himself and two civilians," Mukhtar said. Police Captain Mohamed Hussein said the attempted bombing occurred as new military cadets were doing their morning drills. Al-Shabab controls parts of southern and central S

At least seven people were killed in two separate attacks by the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia in the last 24 hours. The deadliest attack took place in the town of Wanlaweyn, 90 kilometers west of Mogadishu, when an improvised explosive device planted near the home of a military officer exploded on Saturday evening. Moments later a second explosion went off as people gathered at the scene of the first explosion. Five people were killed including the wife of the military officer who was not at home at the time. Deputy Governor of Lower Shabelle region Ahmed Yusuf confirmed the death of the officer’s wife to the press. “The wife of the officer has died, may Allah give him strength,” he said. “Her elder son is among the wounded.” Yusuf said several suspects were arrested and investigation is ongoing. Separately, a suicide car bomb exploded at a checkpoint outside a military base in the town of Ba’adweyne, 170 kilometers southeast of Galkayo town in central

New cases confirmed today: 36 Somaliland: 29 Juubaland: 4 Benadir: 3 Male: 30 Female: 6 Recovery: 27 Death: 0 Total confirmed cases: 2,755 Total recoveries: 751 Total deaths: 88

Djibouti and Somalia have congratulated Kenya for winning a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council on Thursday. Kenya beat Djibouti in the second round to win the seat, garnering 129 votes to Djibouti’s 62. In a tweet on his official Twitter handle, Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh congratulated Kenya for the win. “We extend our congratulations to Kenya as the newest representative of our region at the @UNSC. I am convinced they will bring valuable contributions to the debates during their tenure in the Security Council. My congratulations to H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta and the Kenyan nation,” President Guelleh said in the tweet. The Djibouti leader also thanked the countries that supported Djibouti’s candidature. “And to our partners, Djibouti is grateful for your support throughout this entire process,” he said in another tweet. For its part, Somalia congratulated its neighbour, Kenya, for winning the UNSC seat. “On behalf of the Gov’t and People of Somalia, I wis

Somalia has recorded a drop in the Covid-19 cases in the country, with the Horn of Africa nation announcing 23 new infections in the last 24 hours. Somali Minister of Health and Social Care Fowziya Abikar Nur also announced that 39 more people have fully recovered from the disease. No death was recorded. This brings the total number of cases in the country to 2,719, the death toll stands at 88 and 724 patients have so far fully recovered from the disease. Nineteen of the new cases are from the breakaway region of Somaliland while four are from Banadir region, the minister said.

Injuries were reported after an explosion was heard near Turkey's Maarif Foundation school in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Thursday. The explosion took place near the Hodan region in the capital, Anadolu Agency reported, adding that it was heard from surrounding areas. The injured civilians were taken to Fiqi Hospital for treatment, the report said. No terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Somalia was the first country where the Maarif Foundation successfully made its foray, in a bid to replace schools once operated by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). The foundation was created in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education with the purpose of providing educational services abroad, now runs schools that used to belong to FETÖ in the past. Since its establishment in 2016, shortly after FETÖ tried to seize power in Turkey, the foundation has made official contact with 90 countries and set up offices in several countries to take o

The new coronavirus could be spreading undetected through camps across Somalia hosting some 2.6 million displaced people, the Red Cross warned on Tuesday, as floods and conflict swelled the numbers fleeing into overcrowded settlements. Almost 500,000 people have been forced from their homes by recent floods in central Somalia, the United Nations said, putting further pressure on some 2,000 camps across the Horn of Africa nation, which has been mired in conflict since 1991. "We are concerned that many COVID cases are going undetected, especially in the internal displaced camps," said Ana Maria Guzman, health coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in a statement. "Because of the ongoing conflict in Somalia, and also we are facing floods right now in Somalia, there is an increase in the number of internal displaced population into urban areas and this creates the perfect environment for infectious disease." Somalia, which has a

Hundreds of troops who have undergone training in Eritrea were secretly sneaked in back into the country in the last few days, 10 months after Somaliaffairs reported their departure to the Eastern Africa country. Media sources say that several planes arrived in the last few nights in Mogadishu, bringing in the troops who have concluded months of training in Eritrea. Hundreds of others were also flown to Eritrea using the same planes to undergo the same military training. The reports indicate that the secret exercise is supervised by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). The secret mission has raised concern among some lawmakers and politicians in the country, some of whom have accused NISA of planning to use these troops to intimidate opposition politicians and rig the upcoming elections. On 20 August 2019, Somaliaffairs reported that the Federal Government of Somalia transported 200 young men from the Aden Ade International Airport in Mogadishu to Eritrea.

An unidentified gunmen have shot dead a Somali trader and wounded his colleague on Sunday after an attack on his shop in the outskirts of Cape Town. According to his colleague, the victim was shot several times in the chest before the armed looted the shop and made away with the money. The armed men are said to have escaped from the scene immediately after robbing the shop. South African police arrived the scene for investigation but no arrest was made. Attacks on migrants are common in South Africa with locals accusing migrants of taking their jobs, and being responsible for a rise in crime

The United States Embassy in Mogadishu, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), delivered 150,000 locally made non-medical face masks to Somalia's Ministry of Health to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The delivery fulfills a commitment to provide a total of 500,000 masks, and follows the U.S. Government's recent donation of 350 hospital beds to Somalia's isolation centers, along with computers and printers, and other office equipment and furniture to enhance the functionality of testing labs throughout the country. The United States is proud to be leading the world's humanitarian, health and economic assistance response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Somalia,' said U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Donald Y. Yamamoto. 'The U.S. Embassy through our USAID Mission in Somalia is providing critical protective and medical equipment for the Somali people, and doing so in partnership with the local private sector to build the skills of Somalia&

The al-Qaida-linked extremist group in Somalia has unveiled a COVID-19 isolation and care facility, a sign that the group is taking seriously the pandemic that continues to spread in the fragile country. Al-Shabab announced Friday that the facility, which includes a round-the-clock hotline, has been set up in Jilib, a major stronghold of the extremist group in southern Somalia. “I am urging people with the disease symptoms to come to the medical facility and avoid infecting other Muslims,” Sheikh Mohamed Bali, a senior al-Shabab official and a member of the group’s ad hoc COVID-19 response committee, said in a speech broadcast by the extremist group’s radio arm Andalus. When The Associated Press called al-Shabab’s COVID-19 hotline, a man who answered said the care facility is “open for all people.” He declined to say whether they had any virus cases but said the facility — set up in a building that once housed the United Nations children’s agency in Jilib — has all necessary equi

Somalia continues its fight against COVID-19 which has so far infected over 2300 people and killed 83. The fragile and weakened health system is being overwhelmed by demands for patient care in light of the pandemic, and Somalia has recorded the highest death toll among East African countries. The surveillance system’s ability to rapidly detect, trace, track and test cases is being challenged. In the absence of a functional disease surveillance system in the country, the Early Warning, Alert and Response Network (EWARN), established in 2008 and reactivated as a web-based electronic early warning system for disease outbreaks in 2017, has been expanded to early detect suspected cases of COVID-19 in in both primary and secondary level health care centres across the country. WHO has been supporting this expansion through adding new health facilities, especially those in the private sector, to the reporting system of EWARN. Within the next couple of weeks, WHO plans to roll out

Somalia’s Puntland and Jubbaland regional states have announced the failure of a meeting between the federal government and federal member states. The meeting, which was held via video conference, was to discuss and agree on the date for holding a consultative forum between the leaders of the federal government and those of federal member states. In two separate statements, the two states also announced that they would no longer be part of the meeting of the Secretariat as the regional states and the federal governments have failed to agree on anything. Both Jubbaland and Puntland accused the Office of the President of being an obstacle to the two sides reaching an agreement and for the disagreements on the time and place of the conference. The two sides also welcomed the call by the Upper House of Parliament to hold an urgent consultative forum in which federal government leaders, regional states and political stakeholders will participate before 25th June to discuss the p

New chief of Defence Forces Gen Robert Kibochi has assured troops in Somalia they will be sufficiently equipped to deal with the enemies they are facing. Gen Kibochi was speaking at the weekend when he visited KDF troops operating under Amisom in Somalia. ”You are the arrowhead and we must sharpen the arrowhead. We shall do so by providing you with the right tools to perform your duties," he told the soldiers. It was his 37th day as Chief of the Defence Forces when he met soldiers stationed in Afmadhow, Billis Qooqani, Tabda and Hoosingo. Kibochi is supposed to be planning the exit of the troops from Somalia as per an earlier plan. But this is unlikely to happen on time, by 2021, given the prevailing conditions on the ground. KDF went to Somalia in October 2011. Kenya's incursion into southern Somalia started after the kidnapping of two Spanish women, who were working for MSF at Dadaab refugee camp. The abductions were carried out by the militants who the troo

More than 500 people have succumbed to cholera and acute diarrhoea and left tens of thousands of others sick in Somalia since January, the United Nations said Thursday. The UN's health agency said the epidemic had left more than 25,000 people sick, warning that number was likely to double by the end of June. WHO put the number of deaths since the beginning of the year from the epidemic at 524, while the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said 533 people had died. The case fatality rate, which measures the severity of an epidemic by defining the proportion of fatal cases within a specific timeframe, is currently 2.1 per cent -- more than double the emergency threshold of one per cent

Somali National Army (SNA) on Saturday killed 37 al-Shabab extremists in a fierce fight in the outskirts of Hudur town in the southern region of Bakol, officials confirmed on Sunday. Odawa Yusuf Rage, commander of SNA told journalists that the clashes started after government forces got intelligence of the militants' presence in the area and conducted operations. "Our forces inflicted severe casualties on the militants, killing 37 of them, including the militants' leader in Hudur area," Rage said, adding that the army also recovered weapons from the militants. Locals said there was an intense fight in Abal village in the outskirts of Hudur town which caused casualties from the warring sides and the residents. On May 27, Somali forces backed by the Southwestern State army killed six al-Shabab extremists in another operation in Dinsor town in the southern region of Bay. Government forces have intensified operations against al-Shabab extremists in the southe

Somali health ministry on Saturday confirmed 85 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 2,089. Fawziya Abikar, the health minister, said 13 patients recovered from the respiratory disease in the last 48 hours, bringing the total number of people who have been discharged from hospitals to 431. The minister said three people succumbed to the disease, bringing the total number of fatalities to 82. Abikar said 58 of the latest cases are male while 27 others are female. The Horn of African nation has instituted measures to contain the possible spread of COVID-19, including closing schools, banning large gatherings and suspending international and domestic passenger flights

At least 29 people have died while more than 1 million others have been affected by heavy rains and riverine floods since the Gu (April-June) heavy rains started in Somalia in April, a United Nations agency said on Friday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 418,000 people have been displaced in 29 districts across Somalia as humanitarian agencies ramp up responses to reach those affected by the flooding. "The rains have washed away thousands of hectares of crops, exacerbating food insecurity in affected areas," OCHA said in a report. The rains could escalate the current outbreak of water-borne diseases, particularly acute watery diarrhea and cholera, especially among internally displaced people living in crowded settlements across the country, the report said. The UN agency said humanitarian agencies have ramped up efforts to mitigate the devastating effects of the rains and have reached more than 255,000 people with life-saving

A ban on domestic flights that has been in place for two months now will be lifted on 8 June, government officials have said. The ban was part of a raft of measures imposed by the federal government intended to limit the spread of coronavirus in the country. One flight will be allowed for each region a day, with the flights to the Jubbaland regional state going to Gedo Region instead of Kismayo. The reason Kismayo has been singled out is not clear. The federal government has in the past imposed flight restrictions on Kismayo to punish the administration of Ahmed Madobe, who has been involved in a protracted dispute with the federal government. Minister of Transport and Aviation, Mohamed Abdullahi Salad Oomar, said travellers and flight workers will be required to follow instructions on the prevention of coronavirus issued by the ministry of health. The suspension of the ban on local flights was previously expected to take effect before May 3 according to officials. The

Created in 1960 from a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia collapsed into anarchy following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991. As rival warlords tore the country apart into clan-based fiefdoms, an internationally-backed unity government formed in 2000 struggled to establish control, and the two relatively peaceful northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland effectively broke away. The seizure of the capital Mogadishu and much of the country's south by a coalition of Islamist shariah courts in 2006 prompted an intervention by Ethiopian, and later, African Union, forces. Since 2012, when a new internationally-backed government was installed, Somalia has been inching towards stability, but the new authorities still face a challenge from Al-Qaeda-aligned Al-Shabab insurgents. FACTS Federal Republic of Somalia Capital: Mogadishu Population  15 million (UN, 2015) Area  637,657sq km (246,201 sq miles)

Despite two decades of civil war, the economy of Somalia has survived as an informal economy, based mainly on livestock, remittance/money transfers from abroad, and telecommunications. Somalia is classified by the United Nations as a least developed country, with the majority of its population being dependent on agriculture and livestock for their livelihood. Due to a dearth of formal government statistics and the recent civil war, it is difficult to gauge the size or growth of the economy.According to a 2007 British Chambers of Commerce report, the private sector has experienced growth, particularly in the service sector.  Unlike the pre-civil war period when most services and the industrial sector were government-run, there has been substantial, albeit unmeasured, private investment in commercial activities; this has been largely financed by the Somali diaspora, and includes trade and marketing, money transfer services, transportation, communications, fishery equipment, a

Somalis, along with most of their fellow related Northeast African ethnicities like the Afar, Beja, and Oromo, are what early humans may have looked like, and that their unique and unordinary combination of aquiline features and dark skin is not a result of mixing or miscegenation of any sort. Rather to the contrary, Somalis are indeed very homogenous, not just culturally and phenotypically, but also genetically. A Y-DNA marker is a genetic marker passed on from father to son in a continuous line, and thus is an excellent way to research and trace ones ancestry back many thousands of years. Men who share a single Y-DNA marker form what is called a "haplogroup". E1b1b most likely originated from a man living in the Horn of Africa.  His descendants were most likely the ones behind the rise of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and from their hearth in Northeast Africa, they went north and west and east, spreading the expanse of the Afro-Asiatic languages, later givin