A powerful caucus of Hawiye clan chiefs is conducting discreet talks with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Mogadishu to defuse Somalia’s worsening political crisis, aggravated in recent weeks by the ongoing Al-Shabaab offensive in the Shabelle Valley and the attempted encirclement of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The initiative is still in its infancy, the details still somewhat hazy, and there is no guarantee it will succeed, but it does certainly offer a realistic prospect of ending the escalating divisions and political stalemate in Somalia.
Earlier this month, on 6 July 2022, a man named Hashi Omar Hassan was killed by an explosive device attached to his car in the capital Mogadishu. More than two decades earlier, Hashi had been sentenced to 26 years in an Italian prison for the killing of Italian reporter Ilaria Alpi and her Slovenian cameraman, Miran Hrovatin. In 2015, Hashi was acquitted on appeal, released from jail, and awarded three million euros as compensation for wrongful imprisonment.