Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is once again the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia. On May 15, 2022, after more than a year of delay in the national electoral process, the Somali Parliament chose him to succeed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo who had held office in February 2017 and he aspired to his re-election in office. Since February 2021, when Farmaajo had to leave the presidency, violent protests have rocked the country, which has plunged into internal conflict and political factionalism while the jihadist group Al Shabaab tried, through extreme violence, to blow up the political future of Somalia.
From now on, Hassan Sheikh - who already held the presidency between 2012 and 2017 - faces important challenges to pacify, democratize and develop the country, in addition to fighting against the effects of the devastating drought, which has increased emergency levels of humanitarian crisis and famine of the Somali population.
In the first place, he must address the strengthening of governance and democratic institutions, greatly weakened by the rivalry between the different federal states and the clashes between political parties, still based on clan representation.
In addition, in the field of security, the new president will have to increase the capacity and efficiencies of his military and police forces so that he can take charge, autonomously, of protecting the population. To this end, the main obstacle continues today to be the prevalence of jihadist terrorism, both from Al Qaeda and from Daesh. Finally, it is urgent to promulgate economic reforms that allow the strengthening of the precarious national financial system and attend to a better distribution of national wealth.
In his first speech after being re-elected president, Hassan Sheikh – leader of the Union for Peace and Development Party – stressed that "our priority is to move the country forward together because we do not want political grievances after the elections"; and, to achieve this, he promised to "resolve all pending issues through dialogue and in a peaceful manner" on the basis of a solid political and social reconciliation.
During the long electoral campaign, he focused his program on the need to build "Somalia in harmony with itself and with the world" and to free it from the terrorist yoke of Al Shabaab with the help of the international community.
In this sense, and just one day after his election, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, authorized a military presence in Somalia of some 500 troops to help the new government fight against Al Shabaab.
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