Amid ongoing delays in holding timely elections, Somalia’s Federal Electoral Implementation Team (FEIT) announced an updated timeline for Upper House (December 31 – January 6) and Lower House polls (January 7 until an unidentified date.) Who’s the Spoiler?: Despite no… Read More ›

Somali Government
Somali Government Continues Onslaught Against Domestic Rivals With Impunity
Similar to previous administrations, the FGS has prioritized the defeat of its domestic political opponents during the last months of its mandate rather than creating a conducive environment for elections and defeating al-Shabaab. The political disruption that the Federal Government… Read More ›
Ways to Improve Somalia’s Plans to Take Over Security from Foreign Troops
Earlier this month, Somalia’s National Leadership Forum (NLF) announced a new effort to overhaul the country’s security sector with a new security architecture to define how the government, regional leaders, police, and the army could operate more effectively. The plan lacks specifics in many areas… Read More ›
Stunt or Stand for Democracy? Villa Somalia’s Response to the Failed Coup in Turkey
After the attempted coup in Turkey was put down over the weekend, the Somali government ordered the dismissal of Turkish citizens working in schools, health care facilities, and development organizations linked to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen — who Ankara alleged was… Read More ›
Leaders Debate Technicalities, Women’s Rights, and Clan Issues for Somali Elections
After abandoning one person-one vote elections last year, Somalia’s National Leadership Forum (NLF) produced an important set of results in Baidoa to determine the technicalities of its alternative electoral process. Leaders agreed on members of the National Traditional Forum —… Read More ›
Analysis: Puntland and the Somali Government Reach an Election Deal. What’s Next?
This week, the Somali government and Puntland agreed on a basic framework for elections. The deal comes after months of disagreement between the government and regional leaders on how Somalia could hold a transition process at the end of the… Read More ›
Somalia’s Troubled Transition: Vision 2016 Revisited
The following is the Executive Summary from the Sahan report: SOMALIA’S TROUBLED TRANSITION: VISION 2016 REVISITED. To read the full report, click here. Somalia is politically in far better shape than when President Hassan Sheikh took office in 2012, but much of… Read More ›
Week in Review: Somalia Gets a New Cabinet and Port, Kenyan al-Shabaab Suspect Arrested
Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke nominated a new list of cabinet members after he withdrew his initial nominations due to opposition in parliament. MPs had warned him not to bring in failed ex-leaders and some of the President’s allies. As a… Read More ›
Analysis: Somali Prime Minister’s Cabinet Faces Difficult Challenges Ahead
On 12 January 2015, PM Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke’s new 60-member cabinet was announced after weeks of speculation about whether there would be fresh faces, or instead, the usual lot of Presidential allies and other personalities on the political merry-go-round. The… Read More ›
As Somali MPs Battle Over Anti-PM Motion, Potential Successors’ Names Surface
In the last four days, two separate attempts by Somali Members of Parliament (MPs) to begin a debate to dismiss Prime Minister (PM) Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed under a controversial no-confidence motion has resulted into separate bouts of uncontrollable raucous. Shouting… Read More ›
As Somalia’s President and PM Battle, the Constitution Gives Way Again to Realpolitik
The ongoing power struggle between Somalia’s President and Prime Minister has intensified as PM Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed announced a re-shuffle of key ministers in his cabinet. In a 25 October 2014 statement, the PM removed the Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir —… Read More ›
Putting the Puzzle Together: What Does the Future Hold for Somalia’s Military Forces?
The prospect of AMISOM forces leaving Somalia in the coming years depends on the capacity of the country’s regional and federal military forces to finally cooperate and unite under a Somali National Army that looks much differently than the current… Read More ›
Analysis: Puntland Details Conditions for Talks with Somalia’s Federal Government
Somalia’s Puntland region “re-suspended relations” with Somalia’s federal government after a controversial agreement hailed by the international community was signed to form an interim Central State administration with Mudug and Galgaduud regions. The interim Central State administration would ostensibly set the… Read More ›