Published: June 4, 2026 • 5:22 PM IST · Updated: June 4, 2026 • 9:25 PM ISTBy TheBriefWire Editorial Team
Key points
Fierce clashes have taken place between government troops and militias allied with the opposition in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, damaging property and forcing some civilians to flee.
In the runup to the fighting, which started on Wednesday afternoon, opposition leaders embedded with militias set up positions in their clan strongholds the city.
Maka al-Mukarama road, the city’s main thoroughfare, turned into a battlefield, and by sunset mortar rounds were landing in densely populated civilian neighbourhoods and Bakara market, Somalia’s largest business centre.
Footage on social media showed plumes of smoke rising above the city’s skyline.
The president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, plunged Somalia into a fresh political crisis in mid-May after announcing a one-year extension of his term, which had been due to expire on 15 May.