President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' now appears to have accepted that his right-hand man Fahad Yasin the Salafist former Al Jazeera journalist who became Qatar's unofficial representative in Mogadishu will not now be restored as director of the apex security body the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) after Premier Mohamed Hussein Roble sacked him on 6 September (AC Vol 61 No 25 Testing time for elections)...

Farmajo's personal Machiavelli Before the election of President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' in February 2017 few inside or outside of Somalia had heard of Fahad Yasin even though he was a key political operator ever since the brief rule in 2006 of the Islamic Courts Union...

President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' is proving a weak link in the grand regional lash-up...

In the Horn it has drifted into a cold war with Abiy Ahmed's Ethiopia and locked horns with Somalia's Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed 'Farmajo' over a long-standing maritime boundary dispute which further complicates increasingly hostile relations (AC Vol 61 No 25 Farmajo breaks with Nairobi)...

Geopolitical experts believe Abiy wants a regional body – run with help from President Issayas Afewerki of Eritrea and President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' of Somalia – that would help both him and Issayas resist foreign pressure in the future...

If President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed 'Farmajo' does not meet the opposition protesting his authoritarianism half-way there are fears that splits in the security forces could lead to a return to civil war...