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 At least 15 people were killed in confrontations that took place in the city of Balad Hawa on the eve of January 25, 2021, between the Dervish forces of Jubaland State and the government forces of Gurgur, which receive arming and military training from Turkey. This step shows the extent of Turkey's involvement in an internal Somali war, which the federal government is trying to portray as a war between two neighboring countries, Kenya and Somalia. The Turkish presence in Somalia dates back to 2010, when Turkey provided humanitarian aid to Somalia following a drought that claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million Somalis. However, Turkish aid organizations and bodies that provided humanitarian support to the people were replaced by Turkish giant companies after the end of the drought period. Managing the main port in Mogadishu and Adam Adi International Airport in the capital, Mogadishu, as well as managing health and educational institutions and centers across the coun

  Somali lawmakers are demanding an explanation from President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo after allegations surfaced that Somali troops sent to train in Eritrea have been secretly fighting - and dying - in Ethiopia's Tigray conflict. Farmaajo's office has denied the claim, which was put forth by a former national intelligence deputy chief and parents of troops who are allegedly missing. The parents of Somali troops allegedly missing in Eritrea following military training say they fear their children were secretly sent to fight in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict.   They protested Friday in Mogadishu, calling on President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo’s government to provide information on their whereabouts. Maryam Ahmed is the mother of a Somali soldier sent to Eritrea over a year ago. She says mothers like her haven’t heard from their boys since they left for training.  Ahmed says their sons are missing since November 2019 and they have no contact from them since then. We don’t eat,

  Heavy fighting broke out overnight in a Somali town near the Kenyan border between Somali forces and those from the state of Jubbaland, as Somalia’s election troubles spill over into violence. Somalia’s information ministry in a statement early Monday accused Kenya-funded rebels of crossing into the town of Bulo Hawo and attacking Somali forces. But the Jubbaland vice president, Mohamud Sayid Adan, told reporters that Jubbaland forces stationed outside the town were attacked by what he called forces recently deployed to the region by the government in the capital, Mogadishu. Both sides claimed victory. The information ministry asserted that Somali forces were in control of the town and that nearly 100 of the suspected rebels had surrendered to Somali forces. But Information Minister Osman Abokor Dubbe later told reporters that five children had been killed and their mother wounded when a mortar round landed on their house. “Ordinary militias don't have mortars and missiles,” the

  Three leaders of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group in charge of improvised explosives, which have claimed the lives of dozens in Somalia, were killed Tuesday in US airstrikes. The US Africa Command said that together with the Somali government, they conducted the two airstrikes on Jan. 19 the vicinities of Jamaame and Deb Scinnele. “These strikes targeted known al-Shabaab leaders involved in IED [Improvised Explosive Device] facilitation, fighter training and attack planning,” said US Air Force Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of Joint Task Force-Quartz. “Striking these leaders disrupts al-Shabaab’s ability to attack our partners and indiscriminately kill innocent civilians with improvised explosive devices. We are working closely with our Somali partners to support their operations against al-Shabaab, protect their people and provide governance.” Somalia’s Ministry of information noted that no civilians were killed or injured during the attacks. In a statement, the ministry said th

  The Somali government Tuesday denied claims that hundreds of Somali soldiers have been killed while fighting alongside the Ethiopian army against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Information Minister Osman Abukar Dubbe on Tuesday appeared on Somali state TV, telling the Horn of Africa nation that no Somali forces were involved in the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia. The government official said fabricated and false reports suggested that 370 Somali soldiers were killed while fighting alongside Ethiopian forces in Tigray, noting that Ethiopia did not request any troops from Somalia. “No Somali soldiers have been recruited by Ethiopia or taken part in the fighting in the Tigray region. It's a rumor and it's nonsense," Dubbe said. On Monday, Abdisalan Yusuf Guled, the former deputy spy chief of Somalia's National Intelligence and Security Agency, claimed that over 370 Somali soldiers died while fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. The spy chief's remarks

  Political disagreements combined with other challenges such as floods, drought locusts, Covid-19, and insecurity posed by Al-Shabaab, are set to delay Somalia parliamentary elections. The election of the 54 members of the Somalia Senate failed to kick off on December 1, due to dispute over the composition of the election committees between the federal government and some Federal Member States supported by the opposition presidential candidates. Compared with 2016 when the election of the Upper House was completed in October, this year’s Senate — that was scheduled for December 1 to 10 — has been delayed because some regional states, such as Jubbaland and Puntland, have not yet formed the state-level election committees because of what they see as interference from the centre. At the same time, the national election committee has been rejected as partisan for dominated by federal government employees, members of the national intelligence agency, and supporters of President Mohamed Abd

  Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo last held a meeting with South West State leader Abdiaziz Hassan Lafta Garen. The meeting discussed the political situation in the country especially the challenges in electoral issues. Sources close to the meeting say that President Farmajo and Ahmed Qoorqoor will join the talks in Mogadishu today. According to sources, President Farmajo is working to hold the Upper House elections, in line with the timetable issued by the disputed Federal Electoral Commission. South West State is set to be the first regional state to begin the Upper House elections, although South West President Abdiaziz Lafta Garen left for Turkey after the Commission released the missed timetable.

  Nearly a third of Somalia’s parliamentary seats will be reserved for female lawmakers in an election next month, the prime minister said, a measure long demanded by women’s rights campaigners in the Horn of Africa nation. While welcoming Saturday’s announcement by Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, some women’s groups cautioned that implementing the measure in time for the Feb. 8 poll would be challenging and depended on the commitment of clan leaders. Somalia has been riven by civil war since 1991, and due to the fragile security situation, elections consist of clan delegates choosing members of parliament as opposed to a one-person, one-vote electoral system. Roble made the quota pledge after talks with female lawmakers — who currently hold 24 percent of the 329 seats in Somalia’s lower and upper houses of parliament, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). Ensuring that clan leaders nominate enough women representatives will be vital to securing the full 30 percent qu

   At least two people including a police officer were killed and seven others wounded on Monday in a landmine explosion targeting a vehicle carrying police officers in Somalia's capital, an official said. The attack, claimed by terrorist group al-Shabaab, took place in Mogadishu’s Dharkinley district, according to Abukar Isack, a local police officer who spoke to Anadolu Agency over the phone. "The attack was a landmine explosion," he said, confirming the casualties. The vehicle targeted was carrying police officers, including a district police commissioner, but he escaped unhurt, Isack added. Earlier, another police officer told Anadolu Agency over the phone that when the vehicle, carrying Kahda district police officials traveling to Dharkinley, was hit by the explosion, two civilians were among the wounded. He added that three people sustained life-threatening wounds from the attack and were taken to the hospital for treatment. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the

  Roble said the Horn of Africa nation cannot afford to delay parliamentary and presidential elections further, and that the balloting will take place in regional states of South West, Galmudug, and Hirshabelle, including Mogadishu. Two other states, Puntland and Jubaland, have vowed not to hold the elections, calling for talks to resolve differences over the election process and other issues. “The government has decided to commence the implementation of the election to avoid further delays that may jeopardize the accomplishment of the electoral agreements that was reached on Sept. 17, 2020,” Roble said in a statement issued in Mogadishu. He said he has made frantic efforts to reach out to federal member states to amicably address the differences on elections. Galmudug regional leader Ahmed Abdi Karie had earlier said his efforts to mediate between opposing sides have not been successful. Roble said the government has initiated the process to implement the elections, considered critica

  21-year-old woman arrested, charged in violent Minneapolis assault of older Somali woman. According to Director of Police Information John Elder, on Saturday at about 12:14 p.m., the Minneapolis Police Department responded to a report of a Somali woman in her mid-70s shot and beaten on the 1700 block of East 22nd Street. Officers arrived and located an elderly woman who had been shot and pistol whipped so severely that a metal piece of the gun broke off and was found at the scene. The lone suspect fled the scene with the victim's purse containing her rent money. The victim was immediately transported to Hennepin Health Care where she received emergency care to save her life. Her injuries included a fractured skull and brain bleed from the beating and wounds from being shot, according to police. According to a criminal complaint, during an interview with the victim's son, he stated his mother had left her apartment building to go to the bank to withdraw money for rent and that

  The US military on Friday said that its forces working with the Somali National Army killed five top al-Shabaab leaders in a joint airstrike in the vicinity of the Saaxa Weyne region. In a statement, the US military said one of the slain al-Shabaab leaders was involved in an attack on the US and Somalian military forces. It said that initial assessments indicate the strike on Jan. 7 killed five al-Shabaab members, including wanted al-Shabaab leaders. US Air Force Maj. Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of Joint Task Force-Quartz, said: “This strike targeted known al-Shabaab leaders who facilitated [operations of] finance, weapons, fighters, and explosives. One is suspected of being involved in a previous attack against the US and Somali forces.” However, Speaking to Somali state television, Somali army chief Gen. Odowa Yusuf Rage said that eight top al-Shabaab leaders were killed in the airstrike, including area militant boss Mukhtar Nurow. The somalia-based al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shaba

  A family member of two Somali women who were attacked in a mall parking lot says they thought they were going to be killed. The woman, who was part of an online news conference Wednesday by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said she was speaking anonymously because she's concerned about her family's safety. "I am the daughter of one of the victims of this brutal attack and the sister of the other," she told the news conference. "As racism and Islamophobia increases here in Alberta and across the whole of Canada and in various parts of the world, we are taking every possible precaution to protect the dignity and well-being of my family." Police have said two women wearing hijabs were sitting in a car in the lot at Southgate Mall in Edmonton on Dec. 8 when a man came up to the passenger side and began screaming. They said the man shattered a window, then chased and knocked the passenger to the ground as she tried to run away. The second woman tried t

  Early this year, Somalia is to hold presidential and parliamentary elections despite the opposition's allegations that the government has mishandled the election process and violated the new election model formed following an agreement in Dhuusamareeb, the administrative capital of Galmadug state, in August 2020. The country's political landscape has been characterized by conflict and reaction for a while now, exemplified in the past three elections that resulted in political turmoil and confusion. Lack of trust in the system is the leading cause of ongoing political disarray. Somalia has been ruled by a military regime for 21 years and has lacked functioning government institutions for almost 30 years, still struggling to heal past wounds. The political system is fragile and susceptible to exploitation, giving opposition presidential candidates reason for concern. Just like anywhere else, there are some specific factors that determine the choice of the president in Somalia.

  The much-awaited Somalian elections have been pushed again to a new date by the country's electoral commission. The Federal Electoral Implementation Team (FEIT) which last week said that the Upper House elections will begin on Dec. 26, 2020 released a new election time table stating that from Jan. 7-14 next year, the election of the Upper House members will kick-off. The electoral commission also noted that Jan. 5 was set as the deadline for the registration of all candidates of the Upper House. According to Somalia’s Goobjoog news, the new timetable notes that “the election of members of parliament will be between February 9 and 21[next year] which will subsequently be followed by the election of a new president in March”. Somalia had set another election timetable in September 2019 but also failed to kick-off. Somalia’s opposition has maintained it will boycott the elections, demands reforms and raised concerns about the election commission and its capacity to hold a free, fair

  The recent diplomatic war between Kenya and Somalia has been long in the making. In the sixties, Kenya fought against separatists supported by Mogadishu. The separatists sought to make north-eastern Kenya a part of Somalia. Neighbouring Ethiopia was involved in a similar fight against separatists once again backed by Somalia. These separatist movements in Kenya and Ethiopia were part of a grand idea to create a “greater Somalia” by bringing all historically Somali ethnic regions under one Somali homeland. After the collapse of the Siad Barre dictatorship in 1991, different regions of Somalia declared themselves autonomous or independent entities: Somaliland, Puntland, Jubaland and others. Although Somalia officially gave up on the idea of “Greater Somalia”, bringing these breakaway regions under the control of the central government has remained an important national project. Therefore, Somalia has always viewed Kenya’s overt and covert support of Jubaland — ostensibly as a buffer zo