With our regional correspondent, Gaëlle Laleix
The president of the Southwest State, one of the seven member states of the Federal Republic of Somalia, resigned on March 30, 2026. Abdiaziz Laftagareen announced his resignation on Facebook. A few hours later, the Somali federal army entered Baidoa, the capital of the federal state, without resistance.
According to the Africa Intelligence newspaper, neighboring Ethiopia and AMISOM, the United Nations peacekeeping mission, acted as mediators to negotiate the exfiltration of Abdiaziz Laftagreen, who was holed up in the airport. His planned destination remains unknown.
No Retaliation Promised by Mogadishu
The Somali Information Minister praised the peaceful resolution of the crisis and promised that there would be no retaliation against the Southwest State.
The president had recently stepped down to show his opposition to a recent constitutional reform that changes the election process and extends the term of the current president of Somalia, Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, by one year.
“What happened in Baidoa is not heroic,” lamented Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, former Somali Prime Minister. If the federal government deploys troops to solve a political conflict […], what protection is left for other federal states against the same fate?”, he wondered on X.
Somalia is deeply divided among its constituent states: the leaders of Jubaland (south) and Puntland (northeast) are strongly opposed to the centralization efforts of the Somali president. Mogadishu also claims control over Somaliland, which unilaterally separated from Somalia in 1991 after a bloody civil war.
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