The Kampala Summit Raises the Question: Who Secured Mogadishu?

By Isha Qarsoon

When President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, his ministers, or his supporters are confronted with the government’s failure to provide basic public services, they return to one answer: it made Mogadishu safer. They point to the contrast with the capital in 2000 or 2010. Mogadishu is calmer, more functional, and more stable than it was during the worst years of the conflict. From that improvement they draw a broader political conclusion: whatever the government’s failures elsewhere, it restored order and built the security system that now protects the capital.

The comparison establishes that Mogadishu changed. It does not establish who secured the city, who sustained that security, or whether the Federal Government can preserve it without foreign forces.

For nearly two decades, a foreign-financed and foreign-led military coalition has defended Mogadishu and supported the wider security architecture around it. The Kampala summit that concluded on 31 July was convened to address the future of that coalition’s funding. Instead, it forced Somali officials to confront the premise beneath their own political rhetoric. When asked, in effect, what would happen if the foreign structure disappeared, they did not answer that Somalia could now manage without it. They asked for more time, continued logistical support, and a gradual withdrawal to prevent a security vacuum.