Middle East & Africa | Guns, terms and stealing power

A power grab by Somalia’s president has tipped it into crisis

Elections have been indefinitely postponed because of covid-19 and jihadists

|MOGADISHU

“STAND UP HERE too long and you’ll be a target,” warns the manager of a hotel near the airport in Mogadishu. Visible from the rooftop are two watchtowers and several military checkpoints. In the basement is a bunker. The risks for visitors to this fortified enclave of the Somali capital are not hypothetical: on February 19th a rocket-propelled grenade hit a row of shops near its edge.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Guns, terms and stealing power”

Biden’s big gamble: What a $1.9 trillion stimulus means for the world economy

From the March 13th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Middle East & Africa

France’s bitter retreat from west Africa

The danger is a security void now opens up

Ahmed al Sharaa

Ahmed al-Sharaa declares himself president of Syria

But he has given no details of what kind of state he wants to build


People displaced by the fighting with M23 rebels in Goma, in eastern Congo, make their way to the centre of the city

The fall of Goma heralds more bloodshed in eastern Congo

Rwanda’s reckless invasion raises the risk of a wider war


Hamas talks a big game but is in chaos

Look beyond the latest bravado and brutality and it is bitterly split

Iran’s alarming nuclear dash will soon test Donald Trump

There is no plausible civilian use for the enhanced uranium Iran is producing