The United Nations chief says he’s backing Nicholas Haysom, the top UN diplomat in Somalia who was told by its government that he could no longer work in his role in the country. Nonetheless, the UN will be appointing a new special representative to serve as head of UNSOM. The…
Michael Keating, the outgoing United Nations Special Representative for Somalia, highlighted the ongoing challenges of the Horn of Africa nation in his final briefing to the UN Security Council on Thursday – including the latest rift between member states and the federal government. “On the day that I arrived in…
The death toll in Somalia has risen to 18 following Thursday’s car bomb attack at the Wehliye hotel in Mogadishu. Most of the victims were civilians, according to local media accounts. At least one of the victims was a foreign national. Hussein Mohamed Dirir, a Norwegian citizen of Somali descent…
Government leaders in Somalia agreed to form a National Security Council during two days of meetings in Mogadishu that were completed on Monday. President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who met for the first time since his February election with the heads of Somalia’s federal government alongside regional member states including Puntland…
The death toll in a Mogadishu car bombing has risen to eight people, with several others injured. Radio Shabelle in Somalia said that Wednesday’s explosion at a restaurant in the capital happened near the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The bomb destroyed the Coffee Break restaurant and caused chaos in…
United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien visited Mogadishu on Monday, speaking with residents at the Zone K Internal Displacement Camp Settlement as representatives of the international community evaluated Somalia’s deepening humanitarian crisis. O’Brien, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was joined by Michael…
In Somalia, officials now say February 8 will be the long-waited presidential election day. The electoral commission announced the date Wednesday following a series of discussions by the electoral commission and the newly inaugurated federal parliament, whose members were sworn in at the end of December. Somalia’s elections have seen…