Efforts by the Federal Government of Somalia to secure an official visit to Uganda for President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud have stalled, signaling a notable deterioration in bilateral relations between the two East African nations.
According to sources within the Somali presidency who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Mogadishu actively sought to include Kampala in President Mohamud’s recent regional diplomatic tour. The tour aimed to consolidate support among Troop-Contributing Countries (TCCs) to mitigate the strategic and financial impact of the United States’ decision to terminate funding for foreign forces operating within Somalia.
Despite the high strategic stakes, the proposed state visit was ultimately rebuffed.
Diplomatic sources trace the current impasse to a high-level meeting on May 10 between President Mohamud and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. During the closed-door session, President Museveni reportedly urged his Somali counterpart to engage more constructively with domestic opposition leaders. Museveni further offered Kampala’s assistance in facilitating an electoral consensus ahead of Somalia’s upcoming political transition.
The meeting was also attended by Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also President Museveni’s son.
Members of the Somali delegation reportedly rejected the mediation proposal, viewing the overture as an infringement on national sovereignty and domestic political affairs. This swift rejection reportedly caused friction, souring the remainder of the engagement and stalling subsequent bilateral diplomacy.
The diplomatic fallout has prompted intensive damage-control efforts by Mogadishu. In the weeks following the May meeting, two of President Mohamud’s senior political advisers, alongside a federal minister close to the presidency, initiated quiet discussions aimed at repairing ties with Kampala.
The primary objective of these emissaries has been to defuse tensions and revive the possibility of an official presidential invitation to Uganda. However, despite sustained backchannel diplomacy, sources confirm that these efforts have yet to achieve a meaningful breakthrough, leaving Uganda conspicuously absent from the Somali president’s regional itinerary.
The current diplomatic friction comes at a sensitive time for regional security. Uganda was the pioneer nation to deploy forces under the African Union peacekeeping framework in Somalia in 2007. Ugandan troops remain a cornerstone of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and are critical to counter-terrorism operations against the insurgent group al-Shabaab.
At present, neither Villa Somalia nor the Ugandan government has issued a public statement regarding the reported diplomatic dispute or the ongoing efforts to reconcile the two leaderships.
