Sunday December 21, 2025 {HMC} The State Minister for the Puntland Presidency, Abdifatah Mohamed Abdinur, has urged President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to consider and respond positively to the outcomes of the Somali Future Council conference, which concluded in Kismayo on Saturday.
Speaking at the closing session of the conference, Minister Abdinur called on the president to place national interests above personal considerations and warned against actions that could further divide the country.
advertisements
“It is unfortunate that the president does not see the positive aspects of the Kismayo conference and instead appears to be dividing the Somali people,” Abdinur said.
“He behaves as if Kismayo is a foreign place to him and as if the people gathered here know nothing except what he alone knows. This was not what was expected of the president. He should have welcomed the conference and hoped for positive outcomes, but instead he is steering the country in the wrong direction.”
The minister also cautioned against clinging to power, reminding leaders of political accountability.
“There is life after leaving office, and he must understand that power cannot be maintained forever from a chair,” he added.
The remarks came as members of the Somali Future Council called on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to convene all national political stakeholders within one month, setting January 20, 2026, as a deadline to reach consensus on timely elections.
In a communiqué issued following meetings held in Kismayo from December 18 to 20, 2025, the newly formed opposition alliance warned that if the president ignores the call, it will take steps to organize an alternative electoral process aimed at preventing a constitutional vacuum, security breakdown, and the threat of terrorism.
The conference brought together prominent political figures, including Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni, Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Ahmed Madobe), former Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former Prime Ministers Mohamed Hussein Rooble, Hassan Ali Khayre, and Abdi Farah Shirdoon (Saacid), as well as former minister Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame.
According to organizers, more than 1,500 participants, including around 80 journalists, attended the conference. Opposition leaders discussed Somalia’s electoral process alongside broader political, security, economic, and humanitarian challenges, accusing President Hassan Sheikh’s administration of governance failures and policies that they say have fostered division and alienation.
