Somalia’s political standoff is now costing the country money as well as stability. International donors are cutting funding for the military mission that underpins the fight against Al-Shabaab, and Uganda, the largest troop contributor to the African Union force, has announced a full withdrawal by the end of 2027. The funding squeeze, driven by frustration over both the insurgency and the endless political turmoil, forms the economic backdrop to a constitutional crisis that erupted this week when the Supreme Court ruled against President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term extension.
The court ruled on Thursday that constitutional amendments passed by parliament should never have applied to Mohamud’s current term, and that he should have left office in May. It called for a new agreement between political parties within 30 days and for elections to be held within 90 days. Mohamud has argued that the amendments allowed him to remain in office to prepare for the first nationwide democratic elections, scheduled for April and May 2027, replacing the clan-based system in which elders pick representatives. His opponents view the reforms, and particularly his declaration of a “transition period” that added a year to a term that ended in May, as a power grab.
The immediate business of the state, however, is now entangled in a dispute over ownership of the judiciary itself. Before the ruling had even been published, the president’s office announced on Facebook that it was dismissing the chief justice, Bashe Yusuf Ahmed, and appointing a replacement, citing “concerns… about the need for an efficient and fair judiciary”. The court responded that the president had no authority to fire the judge, accusing him of trying “to obstruct the administration of justice in the constitutional case filed before the Supreme Court”.
Former prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire told reporters that the president had “launched an assault on the Supreme Court and deployed troops to its premises” on Thursday. “The chief justice and lawyers are being pursued in their homes for arrest, have been subjected to torture, and the court’s operations have been halted,” he added. His claims could not be verified by AFP, but images published by Somali media claimed to show military forces inside the court’s compound. “Somalia stands at a dangerous juncture. The dismantling of our judiciary is a direct threat to the rule of law,” said Ali Khaire, who called on all sectors of Somali society to defend the country’s constitutionalism.
The political risk is compounding an already fragile operating environment. Most of the opposition and regional parties boycotted the parliamentary vote on the constitutional amendments in March, with some saying they were barred from attending. Violence broke out in Mogadishu in June as political factions clashed over the issue. That turmoil has coincided with a security crisis generated by the long-running insurgency of the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group, which controls swathes of the country, and which the government is fighting with diminishing external backing.
The financial signals are stark. International donors, frustrated by the lack of progress against the militants and by the political chaos, have been slashing funding for an international military mission that has run for almost 20 years. Uganda, the biggest contributor to the African Union’s force, said this week that it would pull out all of its troops by the end of 2027, a decision that removes the mission’s principal troop commitment. Washington has gone further, cutting all donations to a critical United Nations logistics mission on which the military coalition relies.
For investors and partners watching the country, the calculus is deteriorating on both fronts at once: the security guarantee that underpins economic activity is being defunded, while the institutions that anchor legal certainty, above all the courts, are now contested ground. For ordinary Somalis, the stakes are more immediate. Mogadishu residents expressed mixed feelings on Friday after the ruling. “The Supreme Court is right and its decision is right. In the world, all people and governments abide by court decisions, and the rule of law must be respected,” said Abdullahi Hassan Sheikh, a resident. Another, Mohamed Farah Ahmed, disagreed: “I see the court decision as wrong because, when the new constitution was being approved, the court was operational.”
The country, as coverage compiled at https://www.africanews.com/2026/11/07/political-chaos-in-somalia-after-court-ruling-against-presidents-term-extension/ makes clear, is mired in a deepening political crisis, with the opposition accusing the president of sending troops to arrest the Supreme Court’s chief justice. Whether the 30-day and 90-day timelines set by the court can be met now depends on political actors whose incentives, amid shrinking donor support and a retreating AU mission, have rarely been more misaligned.