With over a decade of experience, Sahan provides expert security analysis, risk management, and policy advisory across the Horn of Africa—backed by unique access to key networks and real-time insights into regional threats.
Sahan supports good governance across the Horn of Africa by facilitating inclusive political processes, producing evidence-based insights, and guiding institutional reform through locally grounded, transparent approaches.
Sahan provides strategic geopolitical research and analysis on the Horn of Africa, examining external influence, political transitions, and regional security to support informed, evidence-based policymaking.
Sahan offers expert-led professional development seminars—both public and customized—equipping policymakers, diplomats, and analysts with practical tools and insights to address political, security, and geopolitical challenges in the Horn of Africa.
Since October 2020, the Somali Wire has led the way in reporting accurate and timely news from Somalia and beyond. Offering coverage of politics, security, economics and more, this bulletin remains one of the most widely cited and respected sources on Somalia.
Launched in August 2021, the Ethiopian Cable delves into Ethiopia’s complex political and socio-economic landscape. Published every Tuesday, each edition features key stories translated from Amharic and Tigrinya, providing context-rich coverage of current events.
The Horn Edition, launched in September 2023, casts a spotlight on developments across the wider Horn of Africa. Created in response to the conflict in Sudan, it provides a region-wide perspective through curated and summarised stories from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan.
7 Publications
6 Media Mentions
5 The Research and Evidence Facility (REF)
"We still get men walking up to us and telling us that it's against our culture and religion to try and be men. But we are not trying to be men, you see. We are simply standing up for ourselves as women and asking to be allowed rights which already rightfully belong to us." Zainab Hassan, a Somali women's activist. In the 1970s, Somalia was widely regarded as a kind of cultural Mecca, with 'Swinging Mogadishu' at its heart. Dhaanto music provided a soundtrack to the decade in the country's modern cultural golden age, and one where women were particularly prominent. Plays, music, and art flourished privately and under the state's support, with nightclubs and bars dotted throughout the capital in which men and women mingled freely. The term 'MogaDisco' is sometimes ascribed to the eclectic mix of Somali disco, reggae, soul and funk that was popularised in these years. Tragically, much of this unique Somali cultural identity-- and women's prominent role in it-- has been expunged, a result of the perennial insecurity and hardline Salafist influence in the decades since.
Last Saturday, 15 March, a young man named Mohamed Jama Gahnug doused himself in fuel and set himself ablaze in Berbera, Somaliland, after – though accounts differ – being ignored by his girlfriend. Just a couple of days later, in the same city, another man, Ali Mohamed Abdalle, consumed poison following an argument with his partner. Both men survived, though Gahnug suffered severe burns, and Abdalle is still recuperating in the hospital. The two men’s extreme reactions to rejection in just a handful of days have reignited widespread discussions about love and tragedy in Berbera – after all, is Berbera not the quintessential home of tragic love, the city of Elmi Boodhari’s epic ancient romantic tale?
Al-Shabaab's offensive momentum continues across central Somalia. Yesterday morning, as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud travelled to Mogadishu's airport to depart for Adan Yabaal in Middle Shabelle, a major improvised explosive device (IED) was remotely detonated near his presidential convoy. Thankfully, the president was unharmed, but the explosion pulled down buildings at the Ceel-gaabta junction and wrecked a bulletproof SUV in the convoy. Several people were consequently killed in the blast, including two journalists, Mohamed Abukar Dabashe and Sultan Ayub Wardhere, while a number of presidential red berets were also injured. The condemnation of the attack in Mogadishu was swift, with the UK calling it a "cowardly act."
The modern story of Somalia tends to be told through the narrow lens of conflict. As the 'poster child' of a failed state, depictions of Somalis have often been reduced to one of piracy and famine, driven by Hollywood films such as Black Hawk Down and Captain Phillips. As such, there has been a tendency to reduce the rich and nuanced Somali culture to one single narrative of chaos and violence – erasing the creativity and humanity of Somalis. Though internecine conflict and political instability have nevertheless dominated the lives of millions of Somalis since the 1990s, the nuance of poetry and art's relationship to these issues can often be overlooked.