MOGADISHU (SONNA) — The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Abdulfatah Kasim Mohamud, has declared that strategic communication and countering disinformation must become a central pillar of the strategic partnership between Somalia and Türkiye, warning that manipulated narratives and coordinated perception campaigns now pose a direct challenge to national sovereignty, public trust and the future of bilateral cooperation. Speaking at a high-level forum in Mogadishu on the new era in Türkiye-Somalia relations, organized by the Directorate of Communications of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye and opened by the Speaker of the House of the People, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, the Minister described a relationship that has evolved from humanitarian and development engagement into a comprehensive strategic partnership. That partnership now extends across security and defence, energy, fisheries, infrastructure, ports, aviation, investment, education, health and institutional development. What makes it durable, he said, is that it is built between the two peoples as well as between the two governments. On sovereignty the Minister was direct: the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia are not negotiable, and Somalia responds to challenges through diplomacy, international law and engagement with partners and multilateral institutions, while making its position clear and consistent to the international community.
The Minister’s remarks came at a moment of intensified engagement between the two countries. In August, Somalia and Türkiye marked fifteen years since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s historic visit to Mogadishu, an event widely seen as the turning point in modern bilateral relations. At commemorative gatherings, ministers pointed to the evolution of a partnership that began with a Turkish hospital treating tens of thousands of Somali patients each month and has since expanded into workshops inside prisons, vocational training, infrastructure projects, defence cooperation and major investment agreements. The relationship has become one of the most significant strategic alignments in the Horn of Africa, with Türkiye playing an increasingly visible role in Somalia’s security architecture, maritime protection and economic reconstruction. For Somalia, the partnership is not only a matter of practical cooperation but also a statement about the kind of international relationships the country wants to build: equal, visible, mutually beneficial and grounded in respect for sovereignty. For Türkiye, Somalia represents a key partner in a volatile region, with shared interests in stability, trade and countering extremism. It is against this background that the Minister’s call for information cooperation must be understood. As cooperation deepens and becomes more consequential, the space for hostile narratives also grows. The Minister argued that a partnership whose results are visible on the ground should not be allowed to be defined by accounts that are false.
A central theme of the Minister’s address was the second dimension of sovereignty in the twenty-first century. Beyond territorial integrity and political independence, he said, the information space itself has become a battlefield. Disinformation, manipulated narratives, coordinated perception campaigns and extremist propaganda are increasingly being used to influence public opinion, undermine confidence in state institutions, create divisions within society and distort international perceptions of Somalia. These threats are not abstract; they have concrete consequences for domestic stability and for foreign partnerships. As cooperation with Türkiye expands into strategically important sectors, the Minister warned, there will inevitably be narratives seeking to misrepresent its nature, purpose or benefits. Disinformation can seize on an isolated issue, manufacture suspicion around it and attempt to weaken the trust that the two countries have built over many years. The warning is particularly significant at a time when Somalia is asserting its position in regional and international affairs, protecting its maritime resources, and rebuilding state institutions. Those who oppose Somalia’s stability, or who are uncomfortable with its growing partnerships, may seek to achieve through information warfare what they cannot achieve through direct means. The Minister’s speech effectively redefined disinformation as an existential challenge, one that requires the same seriousness of response as more traditional security threats.
The Minister’s answer to this challenge was proactive communication, not merely reactive counter-messaging. Explaining the agreements and what they deliver, providing credible information before misinformation occupies the space, and ensuring that citizens understand where the partnership is going and why it matters—these are the essential tasks. Strategic communication, he said, is not only about responding to disinformation but about leading with facts, transparency and confidence. On the Somali side, he described the structures already being built. The Ministry of Information holds the government mandate to lead and coordinate strategic communication. A National Committee for Government Communication Coordination has been established, bringing together the Presidency, the Office of the Prime Minister, relevant ministries, defence and security institutions including the Somali National Army, the Somali Police Force and the National Intelligence and Security Agency, as well as the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs and the National Communications Authority. The direction of travel, he said, is towards better monitoring and analysis of the information environment, earlier identification of harmful narratives, faster dissemination of verified information and stronger coordination across government. This institutional architecture matters. It shows that Somalia is moving away from ad hoc responses to misinformation and towards a systematic, whole-of-government approach. It also signals to international partners that Somalia is serious about defending the information space and expects its partners to be equally serious.
The concrete proposal he put to the forum was to move from occasional cooperation to a structured institutional partnership between Somalia and Türkiye in strategic communication and countering disinformation. Such a partnership could cover capacity building, professional exchanges, joint analysis of emerging disinformation trends, improved monitoring, crisis communication, countering extremist narratives, public diplomacy and arrangements for rapid coordination when major information threats affect either country or their shared interests. The Minister acknowledged that Türkiye has developed considerable institutional expertise in strategic communication, public diplomacy and countering disinformation, particularly through the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications. Somalia, he noted, has gained substantial practical experience in government communication, crisis communication and countering extremist narratives in a complex and demanding information and security environment. That combination—Turkish institutional sophistication and Somali operational experience—offers the basis for a genuinely reciprocal arrangement. The Ministry’s Strategic Communication Department and Disinformation Office, he said, are ready to work directly with the relevant institutions of the Turkish Presidency. This proposal is timely. Both countries face overlapping information threats, including extremists who operate across borders, foreign actors seeking to destabilize the region, and a global information ecosystem that rewards sensationalism over accuracy. A structured partnership would allow the two governments to share analysis, coordinate responses and amplify each other’s messages in ways that neither could achieve alone.
The Minister closed his address with a formulation that tied the entire argument together. Protecting sovereignty today means protecting not only territory but also the information space, public confidence and the national narrative. In the same way, protecting the partnership with Türkiye means ensuring that its story is told by facts and by the people building it, rather than by those who seek to distort it. His speech follows a period of significant activity in this field. The Ministry recently closed the second National Strategic Communication Forum in Mogadishu on 8 September, a gathering that brought together government communicators, security institutions and civil society to refine Somalia’s approach to information operations. That forum, together with the anniversary events marking President Erdoğan’s visit to Mogadishu, has created a sense of momentum. The Minister’s proposal to institutionalize information cooperation with Türkiye is therefore not a standalone request but part of a broader strategic vision. It reflects an understanding that in an era of hybrid threats and information warfare, alliances must be defended in the information domain as deliberately as they are built in the physical world. For Somalia, a country emerging from decades of conflict and now asserting its place on the global stage, this is not an optional extra. It is a core requirement of state building and national security. And for the Somalia-Türkiye partnership, it offers a way to ensure that the next phase of cooperation is protected, understood and supported by the citizens whose future it is designed to improve.