Somalia — a barely functioning state that has exported thousands of “refugees” abroad, often accompanied by crime waves and social strain — will assume the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council on January 1.
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer called it absurd to hand the Security Council presidency to “the #1 worst country in the world on last year’s failed state index.”
Al-Qaeda militia controls large parts of the country. Ninety-five percent of girls aged 4 to 11 in Somalia face genital mutilation,” Neuer noted. “Somalia is a failed state that under 12 indicators was ranked the world’s worst on terrorism, corruption, inability to collect taxes, mass displacement, economic collapse, group grievance, brain drain, and chronic insecurity. Somalia is a failed state controlled in large parts by al-Qaeda, and never should have been elected to the UN Security Council. By virtue of its absurd election – by a 93% majority of the U.N. vote – Somalia gets to hold the rotating monthly presidency.”
Defenders of Somalia and the United Nations noted that the Security Council presidency rotates automatically and carries no strict qualifications, serving mainly as a one-month, procedural role. As Neuer pointed out, Somalia was elected in June 2024 to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council — its first such term since the 1970s.
The United Nations Security Council has five permanent members — the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia — and 10 rotating non-permanent members elected by the U.N. General Assembly to two-year terms, with five seats up for election each year and allocated by region.
Somalia won the East African seat in 2024, replacing Mozambique, alongside new temporary members Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, and Panama. Somalia secured 179 of 193 General Assembly votes, a move framed as a milestone in its long recovery from military rule, terrorism, and clan warfare. Critics argue the country remains unstable, noting that the al-Shabaab terrorist group arguably controls more territory than the government in Mogadishu.
Supporters of Somalia — including James Swan, then the acting special representative under U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — argued that the country’s progress since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre merited recognition and that Somalia could offer useful counterterrorism insights to the United Nations Security Council. Once elected to a temporary seat, Somalia was guaranteed a one-month turn as council president. That timing proved awkward amid revelations of Somali-linked fraud schemes costing U.S. taxpayers billions and a growing dispute over independence in the breakaway region of Somaliland.
Much of the U.N. membership joined Somalia in condemning Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, though generally in less inflammatory terms than Mogadishu, which accused Israel of “aggression” aimed at fragmenting Somalia’s territory. Among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, only the United States spoke favorably about recognizing the Republic of Somaliland, though it did not formally follow Israel’s move. All 10 non-permanent council members rejected the recognition.
Meanwhile, two Somali federal states — Puntland and, more recently, Jubaland — have suspended relations with the government in Mogadishu, further undercutting claims of Somali political stability. Leaders in Puntland argue that Mogadishu itself is the entity drifting toward secession from the rest of Somalia.
The Horn Review think tank, which takes a more optimistic view of the Mogadishu government, argued last week that Somalia’s presidency of the United Nations Security Council is not merely ceremonial or formulaic.
“Strategically, the role grants Somalia direct agenda setting power. For Somalia, the presidency is a critical conduit to address two paramount regional issues,” the Horn Review said, those issues being more U.N. financing for the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia, and international efforts to control the al-Shabaab terrorist organization. “In this sense, the presidency transforms Somalia from a perennial subject of Security Council deliberations into an active shaper of its responses. However, Somalia’s capacity to fully capitalize on this opportunity is inherently limited by its own on going challenges.”
Beginning on Jan 1, 2026, the Federal Republic of #Somalia officially assumed the rotating Presidency of the #UNSC, in a step that reflects its stature within the international system and reaffirms its commitment to the principles of the #UN Charter.
🔗➡https://t.co/wTGMsFTAYr pic.twitter.com/LxNwDCQVmq— Ministry of Foreign Affairs 🇸🇴 (@MOFASomalia) January 1, 2026
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