President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud chaired the National Consultative Council (NCC) in Mogadishu to address upcoming elections and the Al-Shabaab threat.
The NCC leaders officially recognized SSC-Khatumo as Somalia’s newest federal member state during a two-day meeting attended by Galmudug, Hirshabelle, and South West state leaders.
Jubaland and Puntland leaders boycotted the meeting due to political disputes with President Mohamud over constitutional changes.
The NCC expressed concern over Jubaland’s governance and urged the Interior Ministry to resolve its leadership dispute through legal and constitutional processes.
Jubbaland authorities rejected the meeting’s outcome, calling it biased, exclusionary, and representative of only one political faction’s interests.
Information Minister Abdifitah Mukhtar deemed the decisions irrelevant to Jubbaland, calling them politically motivated and lacking federal consensus.
The federal government opposes Ahmed Madobe’s re-election, attributing it to recent clashes and rising instability in southern Somalia.
Despite failed past mediation, Mogadishu seems intent on replacing Jubbaland’s leadership, though its next steps remain uncertain.
The ongoing standoff underscores concerns about Somalia’s fragile federalism and the central government’s approach to managing dissenting regions.
