Somalia tests the limits of Türkiye’s influence in Africa

Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud with Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in March 2024.

Photo credit: Pool

Türkiye’s Somalia policy has reached a strategic contradiction. What began as successful external engagement in Africa now sits inside Somalia’s unfinished transition from recognised statehood to durable institutions and governing authority.

For more than a decade, Türkiye held a rare place in Somalia’s political memory. Ankara arrived when many partners had reduced Somalia to counterterrorism and distant diplomacy.