Opinions

Two of the Farmajo fault’s severe foreshocks or preliminary shakers have occurred on Thursday, February 18 and Friday, February 19. In the first one, government troops have attacked two former presidents and current candidates at a hotel where they were organizing to lead a peaceful march against Farmajo’s illegally delayed election the next day. The second one occurred on Friday when the government fired indiscriminately at a peacefully marching citizens led by Farmajo’s former prime minister, former ministers and a few…

by Vava TampaThursday, March 25, 2021 Somalia is positioned on one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Frantz Fanon once quipped: “Africa is shaped like a revolver, and Congo is the trigger.” More than 60 years later, I think the French philosopher’s assessment is only half true. It leaves out Somalia – which once held the crown as the “Switzerland of Africa”, but is now again on the verge of political disintegration. To use a trigger, one must first ready the gun. Perhaps that was…

It is so funny when academics confuse fantasy with reality. It seems the writer of the article: ‘Citizens’ lack of feeling for national pride is Somalia’s root problem’ is one of those. Patriotism in Somalia has been dead from the start of the independence.  Nothing kills patriotism more than injustice and nepotism. The essay never mentioned the injustices in a Somali nation state.  We as Somalis should be straightforward with our own analysis of the country.  We should be honest and truthful.  I don’t know the…

The international community guards and finances the government of Somalia on regular basis. It spends billions of dollars on Somalia with the purpose of impeding Al-Shabab takeover of the country and keeping peace, stability and democratic process in order to enable the country to be independent for its own affairs in the future. It is also the responsibility of the international community to oversee free and fair elections and peaceful transfer of power on time to prevent dictatorship that could disrupt the gained peace…

The flames of anarchy and civil war are easily lit, and we have not yet fully extinguished the last one after thirty years. It is why our country has been too fragile and on shaky foundations for decades and indeed why, more than ever, the country needed politics of caution rather than confrontation. However, we never realized the extent to which the country was already careering into the irreversible road of anarchy and civil war noticing. What happened in Mogadishu last Friday is a timely wake-up call for every…

by Abdul Fatah M. H. Nero Monday, March 29, 2021

Immense socio-economic and political challenges anywhere produce, more often than not, a new wave of political thoughts and the people to turn them to a reality. In this part of the world, that is not the case. Challenges do exist and accumulate, but they rarely inspire new ideas or individuals to become catalyst for change. Having said that, sometimes rather unexpectedly, wild ideas and individuals turn up from somewhere, maybe from obscurity or bewilderment. This time in moment, Barkhad, the brave man of Somaliland’s…

A Hasty Withdrawal From Somalia U.S. troops can’t be everywhere forever. But the Trump administration hasn’t made a good case for its recently announced withdrawal from Somalia in Northeast Africa. President Trump has often expressed his skepticism of American…

The EU can unblock the so-called “electoral impasse” paralyzing Somalia by rejecting the involvement of the outgoing president. But it must also set out a new framework to help the country move forward. The four-year term of Somalia’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, formally ended last week – but he has refused to leave the office. With the federal parliament’s mandate also expired as of December 2020, Somalia now, for all intents and purposes, lacks legitimate effective national government. Farmaajo argues that…

Somalia was scheduled to hold presidential elections on February 8th. It was the second deadline missed, after the Federal Parliament’s constitutionally mandated term ended on December 27, 2020. On February 5th, the latest round of election discussions between leaders of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and Federal Member States (FMS) in Galmudug state capital Dhusamareb ended without an election timetable. The term of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, alias “Farmajo”, ended on February 7th. According to the…