Somalia president term extension 'unlawful': Supreme Court

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud casts his ballot during local council elections in Mogadishu on December 25, 2025. [AFP]

Somalia's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the extension of the president's term by one year, which sparked violent clashes with the opposition, was "unlawful".

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has tried to move Somalia towards fully democratic elections, replacing the clan-based system in which elders pick their representatives.

But his rivals see the reforms as a power grab by the president, and the decision to extend his term by one year caused a major crisis in a country that has already suffered decades of conflict and political chaos.

Mohamud's term ended in May, but his government declared a "transition period" that gave him an extra year in office to prepare for the first nationwide democratic elections, which are due in April and May 2027.

The president argued this was legal under amendments to the constitution passed by parliament in March, but that vote was boycotted by opposition parties and regional leaders.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the amendments did not apply to his current term and that he should have left office in May.

Mohamud announced late Wednesday that he was dismissing the chief justice, Bashe Yusuf Ahmed, and appointing a replacement.

There were unconfirmed reports that Ahmed was under arrest on Thursday.

The presidency's statement, posted on Facebook, did not reference the imminent decision on his term limit, saying only that the dismissal was due to "concerns... about the need for an efficient and fair judiciary".

The court rejected the dismissal in a separate statement, saying the move was designed "to obstruct the administration of justice in the constitutional case filed before the Supreme Court".

"The dismissal announced in the statement published on the Presidency’s Facebook page is null and void," it added.

The constitutional changes sparked uproar in the deeply fragmented country.

Violence broke out in the capital, Mogadishu, in June as political factions clashed over the issue.

The flare-up comes at a time when Somalia is also facing a security crisis related to the long-running insurgency by the Al-Shabaab Islamist group.

International donors, frustrated by the lack of progress against the militants and the endless political chaos, have been slashing funding for the international military mission.

Uganda, the biggest contributor to the African Union's force, announced this week that it was pulling out all troops by the end of 2027.

Washington has cut all donations to a critical United Nations logistics mission on which the military coalition relies.