Somalia faces fresh chaos as court finds president term extension 'unlawful'

Somalia waded further into uncharted terrain on Thursday as the Supreme Court ruled an extension of the president's term was "unlawful" and dismissed his attempt to sack the chief justice, adding to the country's political and security chaos.

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 rivals see the reforms as a power grab by the president, especially after he declared a "transition period" that gave him an extra year in office when his term ended in May.

That sparked violent clashes with opposition groups and deepened splits with regional chiefs in a country that has already suffered decades of conflict, and is still threatened by the powerful Islamist insurgent group, Al-Shabaab.

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.

The president's office announced late Wednesday on Facebook that he was dismissing the chief justice, Bashe Yusuf Ahmed, and appointing a replacement.

There were unconfirmed reports that Ahmed was under arrest on Thursday.

The president's office did not link it to the court's imminent decision on his term limit, saying only that it was due to "concerns... about the need for an efficient and fair judiciary".

The court rejected the move, saying the president was trying "to obstruct the administration of justice in the constitutional case filed before the Supreme Court".

"The dismissal announced in the statement published on the Presidency's Facebook page is null and void," the court said.

Samira Gaid, an analyst for the Balqiis Insights think tank, said it was clear that the chief justice's attempted sacking was linked to the court ruling.

"The unanimous ruling by the bench appears to be the real trigger behind the Facebook dismissal," she wrote on X.

But Mohamud "will find it difficult to dismiss or ignore the fact that all five judges of the Constitutional Division signed the judgment", she added.

Security crisis

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.

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.

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.