Somaliland hits out over Somalia's offer to Trump of Berbera airbase and port
The breakaway republic argues Berbera port and airbase are not Somalia's to give away.
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THE PIVOT TO AFRICA 🌍 THREAD
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Ebrahim Rasool: Expelled South African envoy accuses Trump administration of racism
Ebrahim Rasool, who was accused of "race-baiting" by the US, tells the BBC racism in the White House was "self-evident".
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Trump Team Divided Over Future of U.S. Counterterrorism Operations in Somalia
Some State Department officials have proposed closing the embassy in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, as a precaution after recent gains by Al Shabab militants.
Trump Team Divided Over Future of U.S. Counterterrorism Operations in Somalia
Some State Department officials have proposed closing the embassy in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, as a precaution after recent gains by Al Shabab militants.
April 10, 2025
Recent battlefield gains by an Islamist insurgency in Somalia have prompted some State Department officials to propose closing the U.S. embassy in Mogadishu and withdrawing most American personnel as a security precaution, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.
But other Trump administration officials, centered in the National Security Council, are worried that shutting the embassy could diminish confidence in Somalia’s central government and inadvertently incite a rapid collapse. Instead, they want to double down on U.S. operations in the war-torn country as it seeks to counter the militant group, Al Shabab, the officials said.
The rival concerns are being fueled by memories of foreign policy debacles like the 2012 attack by Islamist militants who overran the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, and the abrupt collapse of the Afghan government as American forces withdrew in 2021.
They also underscore the broader dilemma for the Trump administration as it determines its strategy for Somalia, a chaotic and dysfunctional country fractured by complex clan dynamics, where the United States has waged a low-intensity counterterrorism war for some two decades with little progress.
The considerations are appearing to pit President Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, Sebastian Gorka, who has a hawkish approach to using force against militant Islamists, against more isolationist elements of Mr. Trump’s coalition. That group, sick of the “forever wars” that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, does not see a major U.S. interest in Somalia.
Last week, Mr. Gorka convened an interagency meeting at the White House to begin to grapple with an approach, according to officials briefed on its findings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations. The meeting is said to have ended without any clear resolution.
Sebastian Gorka, President Trump’s top counterterrorism adviser, convened an interagency meeting at the White House to begin to grapple with the administration’s strategy for Somalia.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Under presidents of both parties, the United States has pursued a policy of propping up Somalia’s weak central government by training and equipping vetted units of its special forces, known as the Danab, and by using drone strikes to provide close air support to them as they battle Al Shabab, which has ties to Al Qaeda.
The policy is intended to lay the groundwork for the Somali government to eventually maintain security on its own. But, just as in places like Afghanistan, that has yet to happen. Conditions have worsened amid reports that some Somali forces have not stood and fought, and as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is said to have alienated not only members of rival clans but some of his own supporters.
The National Security Council and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
A State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that the embassy in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, “remains fully operational” and that the department “constantly monitors and evaluates threat information and adjusts our security and operating postures accordingly.”
Maureen Farrell, who was the Pentagon’s top Africa policy official in the Biden administration, argued that there can be no purely military solution to Al Shabab. The United States should focus on dangerous hard liners while trying to pull the rest of the group into political settlements, she said.
“If we are thinking about reducing our presence, we should use that potential reduction to press for real progress in our goals,” said Ms. Farrell, who is now a vice president at Valar Solutions, a security consulting firm. “This is a once-in-a-decade chance to credibly say that we’re prepared to leave unless we see big changes.”
For most of his first term, Mr. Trump had escalated military efforts in Somalia, including by easing Obama-era limits on drone strikes. But in his final weeks in office, Mr. Trump abruptly switched gears and ordered most U.S. forces to leave Somalia except for a handful that guarded the embassy.
The military redeployed its forces to neighboring Kenya and Djibouti, but kept rotating them into Somalia for brief visits in continued support of Somali forces that the United States train and equip as partners. In 2022, after military leaders complained that moving in and out of Somalia was needlessly dangerous, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. let the military return to long-term deployments there.
There are currently 500 to 600 U.S. troops in Somalia, according to U.S. Africa Command. The new administration has also carried out several airstrikes against Islamic State elements in northern Somalia.
Several weeks ago, officials said, Al Shabab battlefield advances brought the group close to Mogadishu, prompting concerns about the safety of the U.S. embassy — a fortresslike bunker at its airport. The onset of rainy season has since slowed the fighting, buying some time.
Omar Mahmood, a senior analyst for Somalia and the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, said Al Shabab attacks starting in late February initially caught the government off guard, and the group recaptured some rural village areas that it had lost to Somali national forces two years ago. But he argued that the gains had been somewhat exaggerated and that the group does not currently appear to be focused on Mogadishu.
“The government is certainly struggling — its recently trained army recruits have not fared great on the battlefield and the country is badly politically divided — but the concerns about Mogadishu being captured are overblown,” he wrote in an email. “It is typical in the Somali environment, especially amongst the international partners, that once a few things wrong in a row occur, everyone starts to expect the worst.”
Still, some State Department officials are arguing for closing the embassy and withdrawing diplomatic personnel at a controlled pace, avoiding any need for a sudden emergency evacuation operation, as occurred at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021.
The State Department is also under pressure to consolidate embassy operations in Africa, so concentrating diplomatic personnel focused on Somalia in some other part of East Africa, like Kenya or Djibouti, would serve that cost-savings goal, officials are said to have argued.
Portions of Somalia have broken off into semiautonomous regions. Another option said to be under consideration is to move some facilities and assets to a Soviet-era air base in one of them, Somaliland. Mr. Mohamud recently offered to let the Trump administration take over air bases and seaports, including one in Somaliland, even though his government does not control that territory, as Reuters reported in late March.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is said to have alienated some of his own supporters as conditions have worsened amid reports that some Somali forces have not fought against Al Shabab, an Islamist militant group.Brian Otieno for The New York Times
At the interagency meeting last week, Mr. Gorka is said to have argued against shrinking the U.S. presence, contending that it would be intolerable to let Al Shabab take over the country and proposing to instead step up strikes targeting militants.
Any changes would raise complicated questions about relations with allies who have an interest in Somalia. Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt have forces who have also sought to help keep Al Shabab at bay, and Kenya has been the victim of external attacks by the terrorist group.
Downsizing operations would also raise the issue of whether the C.I.A. could continue to operate a station inside Somalia. In the Benghazi attack, militants not only overran the U.S. mission but also shelled a nearby C.I.A. annex building.
All of those complexities are secondary, however, to a decision about what the U.S. approach to Somalia should be. Essentially, the question is whether to keep doing the same things indefinitely to at least help keep Al Shabab somewhat at bay; significantly escalate strikes against Shabab foot soldiers; or scale down while retaining the ability to carry out drone strikes on particular high-value terrorist targets from more distant bases.
Part of the dilemma is the open question of what it would mean if Al Shabab were to take over more of Somalia — including whether it would be content to simply rule the country or would also conduct external terrorist operations or host terrorist groups that do so.
Al Shabab emerged from the chaotic Somali environment in the mid-2000s and pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2012. On occasion, parts of the group have carried out attacks outside Somalia, including a mass shooting in 2013 at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, and an assault in January 2020 on an American air base at Manda Bay, Kenya, after the first Trump administration had stepped up drone strikes targeting the group.
Somalia is across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, where the Trump administration has stepped up a bombing campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi militants who have been menacing international shipping routes to and from the Suez Canal. In congressional testimony last week, Gen. Michael E. Langley, the head of U.S. Africa Command, said the military has been monitoring signs of collusion between Al Shabab and the Houthis.
How Trump Offers This African Territory Its ‘Biggest Opportunity’
After years of building relationships with congressional Republicans and conservative think tanks, officials in Somaliland believe President Trump will grant their ultimate wish: statehood.
Trump Team Divided Over Future of U.S. Counterterrorism Operations in Somalia
Some State Department officials have proposed closing the embassy in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, as a precaution after recent gains by Al Shabab militants.
Exclusive: Trump supporter Prince reaches deal with Congo to help secure mineral wealth
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Jessica DonatiApril 17, 202510:29 AM EDTUpdated a day ago
Erik Prince arrives for the New York Young Republican Club Gala in New York City
April 17 (Reuters) - Prominent Trump supporter Erik Prince has agreed to help Democratic Republic of Congo secure and tax its vast mineral wealth, according to two sources close to the private security executive, a Congolese government official and two diplomats.
The agreement, aimed at reaping more revenue from an industry marred by smuggling and corruption, was reached before Rwanda-backed M23 rebels launched a major offensive in January that has seen them seize eastern Congo's two largest cities.
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The discussions now on implementing the deal with Prince come as the U.S. and Congo explore a broader deal on critical minerals partnerships, after Congo pitched a minerals-for-security deal to U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.
Prince founded Blackwater before renaming the private military company and selling it in 2010 after several employees were indicted on charges of unlawfully killing Iraqi civilians. The men were convicted but later pardoned by Trump during his first term.
The Trump administration has not said how the U.S. might contribute to security in Congo as part of any minerals deal. Analysts and former U.S. officials have said leaning on security contractors such as Prince could be an option.
A Congolese government source told Reuters that any agreement between Congo and Prince would need to be reviewed in light of the push for a deal with the U.S.
The security deal was agreed with the finance ministry, and Prince's advisers will focus on improving tax collection and reducing cross-border smuggling of minerals, the two sources close to Prince said. There were no plans to deploy security contractors to areas of active conflict, the sources said.
Prince declined to comment through a spokesperson. The Congo presidency did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. State Department declined to comment.
INITIAL FOCUS ON COPPER MINES, SOURCE SAYS
Democratic Republic of Congo has vast reserves of copper, cobalt, lithium and coltan - a mineral used widely in smartphones, computers and electric vehicles - but has been plagued for decades by violence in its eastern region.
The agreement between Congo and Prince initially involved a plan to deploy contractors to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and the largest city in eastern Congo. But Goma is now under M23 control and that plan has been put on hold. M23 controls tracts of mineral-rich territory.
A source close to the Congolese government told Reuters an initial deployment of Prince's advisers was expected to start in the south, far from the area controlled by M23 and its allies.
"If you just look at Katanga, if you look at Kolwezi down just off the Zambian-Congo border, they claim that there's like $40 million a month in lost revenue of what's going out and what's coming in," the source said.
A diplomatic source also told Reuters the first stage of Prince's effort in Congo would focus on securing mines and tax revenues in copper-producing Katanga province.
One of the sources close to Prince said advisers were expected to deploy with technical experts from a company specialised in testing and inspecting commodities. The advisers would initially target larger mines and expand as revenue collection improved.
The source did not provide details on how the advisers would tackle corruption in the sector that has long drained revenue that would otherwise flow to the state.
A source in the office of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said an agreement in principle had been signed with Prince, but the details on where and how many advisers would be deployed remained to be established.
HISTORY OF WORKING IN AFRICA
Prince has worked in Africa for over a decade, initially providing logistics for oil and mining companies working in remote corners of the continent.
A number of Prince-controlled companies have operated in Congo since 2015. They have been involved in trucking and have also sought to get involved in the minerals sector.
The two sources close to Prince said the new agreement followed years of talks over how to improve Congo's control over its mineral resources.
Prince previously proposed sending thousands of contractors to the eastern region during talks with Kinshasa in 2023, a U.N. expert panel reported that year. Those discussions did not ultimately lead to a deal.
Congo has long accused Rwanda of plundering minerals from the region, a claim supported by independent entities including the United Nations and the nonprofit Global Witness. Rwanda denies that.
That loss of mining revenue is one of the key concerns that Prince's team will seek to address, one of the sources close to Prince said.
The goal is to ensure "that extraction industries and others are operating transparently, and that their production and revenues is properly distributed in accordance with the Congolese mining code", the source said.
United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to the ethnic Tutsi-led M23.
Rwanda has denied backing M23. It says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo's army and a Rwandan militia operating in east Congo that was founded by perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.
Reporting by Jessica Donati and Sonia Rolley; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Alison Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Fears of Boko Haram comeback stir in Nigerian birthplace of Maiduguri
Threat from jihadists had widely been perceived to be extinguished, but recent clashes suggest otherwise
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Fears of Boko Haram comeback stir in Nigerian birthplace of Maiduguri
Threat from jihadists had widely been perceived to be extinguished, but recent clashes suggest otherwise
Eromo Egbejule
The Muna settlement on the outskirts of Maiduguri, which is home to many people who have been displaced by Boko Haram. Photograph: Eromo Egbejule/The Guardian
On the road running from Maiduguri’s airport to the city, the freshly repainted walls of a girls’ college stood in defiant opposition to a years-long campaign by the jihadists of Boko Haram to make good on their name, which translates as “western education is forbidden”.
At a nearby roundabout on the outskirts of the capital of Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state, three uniformed men sprinted after a cement truck, hoping to collect a road levy. As the driver sped away, they slowed down in the 42C heat, smiled regretfully, and waited for the next heavy duty vehicle to pass.
At the peak of Boko Haram’s 15-year insurgency, bombs went off with frightening regularity at the popular Monday market. But the city – known as the birthplace of Boko Haram – has not suffered a major attack since February 2021, and the low-key security atmosphere reflected its relative tranquility.
The group was founded in 2002, but its campaign of terror took off in 2009, after the killing of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, by police in July of that year. More than 36,000 people were killed and 2.2 million others displaced. In one particularly notorious incident 11 years ago this month, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a school in the town of Chibok.
Many outside the region assumed the insurgency had been extinguished, but on 8 April this year Borno’s governor, Babagana Zulum, issued a troubling warning: Boko Haram was staging a comeback. Zulum told a meeting of security agents that renewed attacks and kidnappings were occurring “almost on a daily basis without confrontation”, in a sign that the state’s authorities were “losing ground”.
Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno, left, believes that Boko Haram is resurgent.Photograph: AP Photo/AP
Zulum made the warning less than a month after gunmen raided two military bases in Borno and his security convoy reportedly intercepted a Boko Haram ambush attempt. The number of fatalities in both cases remains unclear.
In response to Zulum, a spokesperson for the military authorities said: “The military is sacrificing a lot, and our efforts should be appreciated.”
Nigeria’s information minister, Mohammed Idris, also said the armed groups have been “largely dissipated”, toeing the tone of his predecessor Lai Mohammed, who in 2015 said they had been “technically defeated”.
“We’re not saying that we have 100% exterminated Boko Haram,” Idris said after the security meeting. “But I think that we’ve degraded Boko Haram significantly for them to pose any kind of significant challenge for us as a country.”
Zulum fired back: “I believe he is naive about what is happening in the country.”
In recent years, a multinational coalition between Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria has reclaimed territory controlled by Boko Haram and helped to secure garrison towns from attacks. The group has simultaneously been weakened by a split into two factions that often fight among themselves.
In January 2024, Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, promised to “stamp out the remaining vestiges of Boko Haram, Ansaru, banditry and kidnapping gangs”.
Aid workers speak to people who have been displaced at the Muna settlement.Photograph: Eromo Egbejule/The Guardian
“We won’t rest until every agent of darkness is completely rooted out,” he added.
However, analysts have said troops are struggling to contain jihadists in the “Timbuktu Triangle” – a term referencing the Malian city, a former jihadist stronghold – and used to denote an area stretching from eastern Yobe state into western Borno.
Beyond the attacks on army bases, local reports said 40 farmers were reportedly killed and several others kidnapped by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in January. The latter faction split to ally with Islamic State and has taken on a different style, taxing some villages and small towns that they control and remitting taxes to commanders.
There are also fears that thousands of displaced households sent from camps back to their villages under a resettlement scheme may now be under threat.
As long as ago as 2023 the International Crisis Group warned of the resettlement scheme: “The hasty process is endangering displaced people’s lives – putting them closer to the fighting and cutting them off from support. By exposing civilians to hardship, the government risks giving jihadist groups an opportunity to forge ties with relocated communities and draw benefits from their economic activities.”
The situation in Yobe is tense. In September 34 people were killed in an attack, then in March a pro-Tinubu media outlet reported that villagers in Gujba, where more than 40 students were massacred in 2013, had been given eviction notices by Boko Haram for helping the army defeat the jihadists in a recent battle. The authorities claimed there was “no credible intelligence” backing the report.
In late March, Niger withdrew from the military coalition, prompting concerns about intelligence sharing and the capacity to keep jihadists at bay after the exit of French and American troopsfrom the Sahel. A new and much bigger regional force, established this year, is yet to get on its feet.
In Maiduguri, some say the Tinubu administration has been complacent and accuse the national security adviser of being more focused on political matters.
In a clinic in the city, an aid worker who wanted to remain anonymous watched student nurses roam the hallways. “Everybody has forgotten Maiduguri,” they said.