Blood had barely dried on Mogadishu’s streets when al-Shabaab’s media apparatus sprang into action. Within hours, slick propaganda videos flooded Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups across Somalia, portraying the terrorist group’s recent counter-offensive as a triumphant blow against government forces. Meanwhile, official channels remained eerily silent.
This information vacuum has become depressingly familiar to Somalis caught between battlefield realities and competing narratives. Despite pushing al-Shabaab from strategic strongholds over recent months, the Somali government has surrendered the information war to an adversary on the back foot.
“They hit us with three tweets and a video before our press officer even answers his phone,” grumbled a senior military commander, speaking on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to address media. “By the time we issue a statement, the damage is already done.”
The propaganda gap stems from crippling dysfunction within Somalia’s media infrastructure. Sources inside Villa Somalia describe a communications apparatus fractured by bureaucratic turf wars. The Presidential Palace and Prime Minister’s Office operate competing media teams that rarely coordinate messaging, often contradicting each other during critical security incidents.
Somalia’s Ministry of Information, tasked with orchestrating government communications, has deteriorated into a hollow shell under ineffective leadership. Veteran journalists who once staffed government outlets have fled to private media or international organisations, leaving inexperienced replacements struggling with antiquated equipment and meager resources.
“We’re running a media operation with two broken cameras, sporadic electricity, and salaries that haven’t been paid in three months,” revealed a producer at the national broadcaster, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal. “How can we compete with terrorists who’ve mastered social media and quick-response propaganda?”
The consequences of this communication failure extend beyond public perception. In regions recently liberated from al-Shabaab control, communities hesitate to collaborate with government authorities, unconvinced of their staying power. International donors question the sustainability of security gains that go uncelebrated and unexplained.
Meanwhile, al-Shabaab has refined its messaging with chilling efficiency. Their media wing produces content targeting specific demographics – polished Arabic-language videos for potential Gulf donors, Somali-language radio broadcasts for rural audiences, and English-language statements crafted to attract international media attention.
“They understand media cycles better than most professional communications teams,” admitted a Mogadishu-based foreign correspondent. “They time releases for maximum impact and tailor content to specific platforms. The government still treats information dissemination as an afterthought.”
This asymmetry was painfully evident during last month’s coordinated attacks on Mogadishu’s outskirts. While security forces ultimately repelled the assault, al-Shabaab declared victory across multiple platforms, complete with carefully edited footage suggesting major territorial gains. Eighteen hours passed before any official government rebuttal emerged – a poorly worded press release that failed to counteract already entrenched narratives.
Western security partners have grown increasingly frustrated. “You can’t kill your way out of an insurgency if you’re losing the battle for hearts and minds,” said a diplomatic source intimately involved in Somalia’s security sector reforms. “We’ve provided helicopters and training, but we can’t force them to communicate effectively.”
A proposed joint communications centre designed to coordinate security messaging has languished on bureaucrats’ desks for months. Training programmes for government media personnel regularly fall victim to budget constraints and political interference.
For ordinary Somalis, the information gap breeds dangerous uncertainty. Market vendors in Mogadishu describe checking their phones each morning for both official government channels and al-Shabaab-affiliated sites, trying to piece together reality from contradictory claims.
As military operations intensify across central Somalia, closing the propaganda deficit has become as strategically vital as securing territory. Without effective communication, even substantial battlefield victories risk becoming footnotes in a narrative authored by the very forces Somalia is fighting to eliminate.
