Who Governs Somalia's Cities? New Fieldwork on Power, Trade, and What It Means for International Engagement

Description

Somalia is usually discussed through the lens of state fragility, federal politics, and Al-Shabaab. But much of the country's political life is shaped by competition among its cities, and by forms of urban governance that rarely feature in policy discussions. Drawing on very recent fieldwork across five Somali cities (Garowe, Las Anod, Baidoa, Kismayo, and Mogadishu), this presentation explores how urban authorities govern through the control of trade flows, checkpoints, and revenue extraction rather than through formal state institutions. It asks what this means for how we understand Somali political order, and why it should matter for Danish and international development engagement, particularly at a moment of intensifying Gulf competition and shifting alliances across the Horn of Africa.

Period	26 May 2026
Held at	Udenrigsministeriet, Denmark