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”

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