Photo/Somali Times
Somalia has been in a constitutional crisis for nearly two weeks after an agreed-upon election date elapsed on Feb 8 without voting, leaving president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo in power until election 2021.
Somalia has a ongoing, 30-year civil war. Over the past decade, since wresting greater control over the country’s cities from the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group and Al-Shabaab, a succession of Somali leaders and their foreign partners have sought to build institutions of governance, including representative elections.
It’s a moment of great uncertainty. There’s still no consensus on how to move forward is getting frustrating. This has resulted in the clashes in Mogadishu this morning,
Somalia’s minister of security Hassan Hundubey Jimale said the opposition of starting the fighting. ”Armed militia attacked government forces. We repulsed and overpowered the militias,” Jimale said in an overnight statement.
The United Nations and others have urged Somali political leaders to solve their differences quickly. The U.N. on Friday said the new clashes ‘underscore the urgent need.’