One issue that stuck out during President Mohamud’s largely successful first visit to the United States was the future of federalism in Somalia. After a warm reception in the Washington, D.C. area, Mohamud encountered significant protests in his subsequent visit to… Read More ›
Brief Background on Jubaland Jubaland historically comprised of Lower and Middle Juba states. But military dictatator and ex-President Siad Barre split up the region in 1975, adding Gedo (created as an enclave for Barre’s Darod-Marehan clan members), Bay, and Bakool… Read More ›
This is the first in a multi-part series about Somalia in 2013. In 2012, the Somali National Army and its partners in AMISOM and Ethiopia retook major al-Shabaab strongholds–including the lucrative port of Kismayo–and essentially confined al-Shabaab to the southern… Read More ›
AMISOM, the Somali National Army (SNA), and Ras Kamboni formally ousted al-Shabaab from its lucrative hub in Kismayo in early October 2012, but al-Shabaab has maintained a heavy informal influence in the port city. The group has carried out improvised… Read More ›
Uganda’s Security Minister Muruli Mukasa has stated that the country intends to withdraw its troops from Somalia and other conflict hotspots in response to the UN’s allegation that Uganda is supporting M23 rebels in DRC. Ugandan forces in Somalia—estimated to be at… Read More ›
Three days after al-Shabaab’s most significant “tactical withdrawal” to date, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), its counterparts in AMISOM, Ras Kamboni, and the Somali National Army (SNA) finally entered the port city in the first week of October to fill… Read More ›
A flurry of reports are filling news outlets on the ongoing advance of Somali government troops and international forces toward the port of Kismayo, as they move to oust the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab from its most lucrative source of… Read More ›
In January 2012, Somalia Report reported that al-Shabaab had sacked its Kismayo administrator, Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, but it was unclear at that time who was to take his place. New reports indicate that al-Shabaab have appointed Sheikh Abu Habeeb to… Read More ›
Al-Shabaab’s District Commissioner in Kismayo, Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, has begun efforts to evacuate his wives and children out of the port city in anticipation of troops allied with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) into the city in the coming weeks. According… Read More ›
New Swahili/English magazine Gaidi Mtaani (Terrorist in the Street) was first posted in April 2012 in Jihadi forums used for material published by al-Qai’da in East Africa (AQEA)–a group with long ties to al-Shabaab. The publication reflects al-Shabaab and their affiliates’… Read More ›
