Mogadishu residents on Friday expressed mixed feelings after Somalia’s Supreme Court ruled an extension of the president’s term was “unlawful”.
The country is mired in a deepening political crisis, with the opposition accusing President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of sending troops to arrest the Supreme Court’s chief justice.
“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 Mogadishu resident.
“I see the court decision as wrong because, when the new constitution was being approved, the court was operational,” said Mohamed Farah Ahmed.
Somalia is dealing with multiple crises, with political rivalries that have descended into violent clashes, while the government loses international support for its fight against the powerful Islamist insurgent group, Al-Shabaab.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has tried to move Somalia towards fully democratic elections, replacing the clan-based system in which elders pick their representatives.
But his opponents see the reforms as a power grab, especially after the president declared a “transition period” that gave him an extra year in office when his term ended in May.
Mohamud argues he was allowed to stay in office under constitutional amendments passed by parliament, to prepare for the first nationwide democratic elections in April and May 2027.
But the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that they should never have applied to Mohamud’s current term and he should have left office in May. It called for a new agreement between political parties within 30 days, and elections to be held within 90 days.
Before the ruling had even been published, the president’s office announced on Facebook that he was dismissing the chief justice, Bashe Yusuf Ahmed, and appointing a replacement, because of “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”.
A 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 in 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. “I call on all sectors of Somali society to stand up now and defend Somalia’s constitutionalism.”
Security crisis
Most of the opposition and regional parties boycotted the vote on amending the constitution when it went to parliament in March, and some said they were barred from attending.
Violence broke out in the capital, Mogadishu, in June as political factions clashed over the issue.
The flare-up comes at a time when Somalia is also facing a security crisis related to the long-running insurgency by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group that controls swathes of the country.
International donors, frustrated by the lack of progress against the militants and the endless political chaos, have been slashing funding for the international military mission that has been ongoing for almost 20 years.
Uganda, the biggest contributor to the African Union’s force, announced this week that it was pulling out all troops by the end of 2027.
Washington has cut all donations to a critical United Nations logistics mission on which the military coalition relies.
