Strip away the propaganda, the talking points, the carefully staged press briefings, and one brutal truth emerges: this war is not about uranium enrichment, oil security, or the policing of the Strait of Hormuz. Those are the headlines for public consumption. The real story—the one whispered in strategy rooms and buried beneath layers of diplomatic […]
Puntlanders routinely travel outside their own State—to Mogadishu and Hargeisa—for medical treatment. Why?The answer is uncomfortable but cannot be ignored: a deep crisis of trust in the public health system.At the heart of this crisis are persistent allegations of corruption, weak oversight, and systemic mismanagement within the health sector. Reports—circulating for years among patients, practitioners, […]
How Ancient Rome’s debasement echoes today – and whether the yuan is ready to take over If you’ve followed financial news lately, you’ve seen the headlines: “De-dollarization is coming.” “BRICS launch new currency.” “Saudi Arabia accepts yuan for oil.” Most of it is hype. But beneath the noise lies a genuine anxiety – one that […]
There is a seductive simplicity in the claim that the United States “cannot allow Iran to win.” It sounds like doctrine. It smells like strategy. But scratch beneath the surface, and it reveals something far more dangerous: a self-imposed trap where perception matters more than reality—and escalation becomes inevitable. At the center of this argument […]
There is a system in Somali politics that defies even the worst vocabulary of political science. It is not merely a dictatorship. It is not just kleptocracy. It is something far more corrosive, more intimate, and more dangerous. It is Madax-ka-Nool — the system where only one head is alive, and the rest of the […]
April 16, 2026 There are dictatorships. There are monarchies. There are kleptocracies dressed in suits and diplomatic smiles. But Somalia, as always, has coined its own brutal truth—Madax-ka-Nool. A political system so naked, so unfiltered, it requires no translation: only the head is alive; the body is dead.This is what Madax-ka-Nool: Government by One Person […]
There are dictatorships. There are monarchies. There are kleptocracies dressed in suits and diplomatic smiles. But Somalia, as always, has coined its own brutal truth—Madax-ka-Nool. A political system so naked, so unfiltered, it requires no translation: only the head is alive; the body is dead.This is what Madax-ka-Nool: Government by One Person and Nominal, Ineffective […]
WAPMEN/WDM EditorialThe fog is lifting. The slogans are fading. And the world, sobering from weeks of reckless brinkmanship, is staring into the abyss it nearly walked into: nuclear mutual destruction—not as theory, but as policy flirtation.At the center of this unfolding drama stand two men—Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu—who mistook power for impunity and war […]
There is a dangerous myth in Somali politics that ignorance is harmless — even virtuous. It is not. Ignorance, when weaponized in politics, is a curse that drags entire societies into the abyss while its carriers celebrate illusion as strategy.What we are witnessing today in Mogadishu is not politics. It is theatre — a tragic […]
There was a time—recent enough for memory, distant enough for illusion—when the world order at least pretended to be civil. Heads of state chose their words carefully. Wars were dressed in legal language. Starvation was denied, not declared. Assassinations were whispered, not televised. And institutions like the United Nations acted as a moral stage—even when […]
Warsame Policy & Media Network (WAPMEN) 
Dear Ismail
Sharia courts have been operating in Puntland including capital City of Garowe, in Somaliland and in many cities of Somalia on an amicable terms. The condition to rule is that the two sides of the dispute agree on resorting to the private arbitration courts based on Islamic jurisprudence. The difference between these private courts and Puntland lowers courts which apply sharia law is that their verdict isn’t binding as those of Puntland justice system and individuals involved cam take the matters to the other courts. These private courts are not different from many arbitration courts in US & Europe which have had even series of movie episodes, some of them widely respected and accepted. Taking them to extremes as you mentioned in your breaking-news-style sensation isn’t absolutely quite wrong and beyond reasonable judgement.
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Do they need licenses from the government to operate in the country?
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Since their verdict isn’t binding, they are a form of arbitrations which are performed by the elders or businessmen to solve disputes. Government has not yet requested them to register.
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What you are talking about is an ad hoc religious groups dealing disputes between parties in remote areas of the country.. Here, it is about organized teams in Puntland Capital City, and perhaps elsewhere, for profit without any means to enforce their judgments at moment, but have the potential to grow as parallel judiciary organizations in urban centres. Nobody is concerned about settlement of disputes through Sharia among the nomads in the countryside.
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Sorry I meant to say “Taking them to extremes as you mentioned in your breaking-news-style sensation is absolutely quite wrong and beyond reasonable judgement”.
Apologies.
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