Unleashing tens of billions of investment across Africa, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are buying critical minerals and political influence, The strategy of the oil-fired Gulf States in Africa appears to be modelled on a foreign policy dictum coined by Ghana s founding President, Kwame Nkrumah: We face neither east nor west – we face forwards. Like Nkrumah, the Gulf monarchs alternate between cutting deals in Washington and Beijing and Moscow. Unlike him, they have trillions of dollars in sovereign wealth funds and face no immediate threats of coups d état.
The security force shootings in Las Anod have highlighted the grievances of Somaliland residents who don t want independence for the statelet, The security force shootings in Las Anod at the turn of the year are having major repercussions in the region, including on the disputed Sool region and on Hargeisa s long-running campaign for Somaliland to be recognised as a nation.
The anti-Al Shabaab offensive has the wind in its sails, but maintaining its momentum presents the President with deep problems, The humanitarian situation will remain dire in 2023. Any rains that do come cannot restore an already devastated ecosystem and emergency aid to the starving will still be hampered by military operations in rural areas and terror attacks by Al Shabaab in the urban centres north of Mogadishu. Only Somaliland and Puntland can rely with confidence on obtaining food aid.
The recent bomb attack in the capital reveals weakness in Al Shabaab, which is at its lowest military ebb for years, The horrific Al Shabaab bombing in Mogadishu on 29 October which killed 100 and wounded more than 400 showed the jihadists defiance in the face of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud s new government, which has promised to redouble the counter-insurgency campaign, intelligence sources are saying.
The Islamist militia let the cameras in to demonstrate its durability as a force but then suffered a major defeat to a Sufi militia, The normally secretive Al Shabaab shed its shyness on London s Channel 4 News on 15 June in a filmed report from training grounds in Somalia, featuring one of its top leaders, Abdirahman Mahamed Warsame, (aka Mahad Karate ). But two days after the broadcast, its fighters suffered a heavy defeat against a Sufi militia in Galmudug.