Fighting Again Erupts in Somalia's Baidoa
The Spin
Pro-government narrative
Forces that openly announce waves of assaults on a city, strike power facilities and reportedly send explosive-laden drones into populated neighborhoods have forfeited any serious claim to political legitimacy. Whoever fights side by side with al-Shabaab owns the consequences, and an elected administration has every right to defend and hold the city. Rewarding armed rejectionism with political talks would only invite the next attack.
Government-critical narrative
Calling this a counterterrorism fight is a convenient fiction when the real battle is over who controls South West State. Unleashing heavy weapons, drones and advanced jets on a city sheltering half a million displaced people cannot be justified as simply restoring order. This is fundamentally a political crisis that demands a negotiated settlement; further military escalation will only deepen grievances, destruction and displacement.
Establishment-critical narrative
Washington has spent years treating Somalia as a battlefield, expanding airstrikes, covert operations and military infrastructure while violence and political fragmentation persist. Now the U.S. is deepening its footprint in Bosaso as rigid diplomacy sidelines Somaliland and local realities. More drones, bases and proxy forces are not a strategy for stability — they are the machinery of an open-ended war that has failed to deliver it.