Aden Madobe Escalates Political Offensive Against Laftagareen Amid Intensifying Fighting in Baidoa

Baidoa (WDN) — In a striking escalation of South West State’s political crisis, President Aden Mohamed Nur (Aden Madobe) has convened an extraordinary cabinet meeting and accused former South West leader Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen of collaborating with Al-Shabaab—an allegation that would represent a dramatic escalation in the political confrontation surrounding Baidoa.

According to a statement issued after the meeting, the Southwest cabinet claimed to have identified evidence of cooperation between Laftagareen and Al-Shabaab and said it now considers the former regional president to be associated with the militant group. The allegation was announced by the Southwest administration’s spokesperson following the meeting, but no independently verifiable evidence was publicly presented to substantiate the claim.

The timing of the accusation is particularly striking. Aden Madobe’s administration is operating in the midst of an increasingly bitter political and military confrontation with forces loyal to Laftagareen, whose supporters reject the circumstances under which Aden Madobe came to power in Baidoa and maintain that Laftagareen remains the legitimate political figure favored by sections of the local population.

Rather than resolving the dispute through political engagement, the latest declaration appears to open a new front: an attempt to transform a deeply contested political struggle into an accusation of terrorism.