Benadir (or Banadir/Benaadir) is located on the south-eastern coast of Somalia and shares internal borders with Middle Shabelle and Lower Shabelle regions.424 It covers the same area as the municipality of Mogadishu and effectively constitutes a territory under direct FGS administration.425 As of September 2025, Benadir’s population was estimated at 3 289 438.426 For more detailed background information on Benadir and Mogadishu, see section 2.3. of the EUAA COI Report Somalia: Security Situation (May 2025).
Benadir, the seat of the Federal Government, was described as featuring multiple armed and security actors, with the administrations in its various districts being influenced by dominant clan interests.427 AUSSOM troops were stationed in the capital428, while Türkiye used the TURKSOM military base to train soldiers for the SNA’s Gorgor special forces and the Haram’ad paramilitary police force.429
Between February and April 2025, Al-Shabaab gained ground in Middle and Lower Shabelle,430 advancing to within 50 kilometres of Mogadishu.431 By July 2025, the militants had reportedly encircled most of the city,432 leading security analysts to speak of a serious threat of Al-Shabaab taking control of the capital.433 Several country experts, however, refuted this assessment in October 2025, stating that the group lacked the military and human resources to attack Mogadishu, while the capital was hosting thousands of government troops and had international military support.434 The advance by Al-Shabaab towards Mogadishu reportedly slowed in July 2025, while AUSSOM forces, together with Somali security forces, retook and defended several towns near the capital.435 Al-Shabaab attacks within Mogadishu have reportedly declined since 2023, evolving from recurring bomb attacks to less frequent high-profile attacks aiming at undermining government authority.436 Similarly, a UN report noted that between July and December 2025, Al-Shabaab attacks focused on military targets and were largely directed at security installations and government officials.437 Such high-profile attacks on government installations carried out by Al-Shabaab occurred in May 2025,438 in July 2025439 and in October 2025.440 Other security incidents during the reference period included several rocket and mortar attacks,441 impacting Aden Adde International Airport,442 Halane base camp housing AUSSOM troops,443 as well as neighbourhoods near the Presidential Palace.444
At the end of July 2025, a large number of NISA personnel as well as Somali Police Force was deployed in Mogadishu as part of a revised security plan for the capital. The aim of the deployment was to deter mortar attacks and prevent the infiltration of IEDs, reportedly contributing to a decrease in attacks.445 An April 2025 report by the Geneva-based NGO Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime (GI-TOC) detailed how despite Al-Shabaab’s lack of control in the capital, it maintained a wide intelligence network and taxation apparatus in Mogadishu. By levying illicit taxes on imports into the city and extorting local businesses, it was reportedly able to gain a generous revenue.446
In the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, ACLED recorded 354 security incidents in Benadir region, including battles, explosions or other forms of remote violence, and violence against civilians, causing 225 fatalities.447
Figure 21: Evolution of security events and fatalities in Benadir per month, based on ACLED data.448
Figure 22: Evolution of security events in Benadir per type, based on ACLED data.449
In the period from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, the following actors (coded as either ‘Actor 1’, or ‘Actor 2’) were, among others, involved in security incidents: Al-Shabaab was involved in 156 security incidents, 129 of them against Somalian Military Forces and Police Forces. Moreover, Somalian Military Forces and Police Forces were involved in 123 security incidents against civilians. 22 security incidents involved attacks by Al-Shabaab militants on civilians.450
Illustrative security incidents
On 19 April 2025, several mortar shells struck neighbourhoods near the presidential palace, killing two and injuring three other civilians.451
On 18 May 2025, an attacker targeted young men outside the Damanyo base, killing about a dozen people452 and injuring over sixty.453 The men were would-be recruits looking to join the SNA.454
On 9 July, a suicide bomber targeted Jaalle Siyad Military Academy455, reportedly causing 4 fatalities and six injuries.456 Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.457
On 4 October 2025, Al-Shabaab fighters infiltrated a prison in central Mogadishu. This resulted in several hours of gunfire exchange.458 The attack reportedly happened mere hours after the FGS had lifted several roadblocks in the city which had been there for several years to protect government sites.459
In December 2025, an attempted suicide bomb attack on a military camp was foiled.460
Conflict-related displacement
According to the UNHCR PRMN, 17 individuals were newly displaced from Benadir region due to conflict or insecurity in the period from April 2025 to February 2026. In the same period, 7 636 individuals arrived from other regions, most of them (7 421) from Lower Shabelle, with more than half originating from Afgooye district.461 According to the UN Panel of Experts, 90 % of conflict-related displacement recorded during between September 2024 and October 2025 was linked to Al-Shabaab.462 Radio Ergo noted in September 2025 that hundreds of families who had fled fighting between government forces and Al-Shabaab in Lower Shabelle were facing food and water shortages in IDP camps in Mogadishu.463
Other impacts on civilian life and humanitarian situation
A December 2025 map by UNOCHA showed ‘very limited’ to ‘limited’ restrictions regarding humanitarian access in central parts of Mogadishu, but ‘heavy’ restrictions in parts of the outer districts of Kaxda and Daynile and ‘very heavy restrictions’ in Wadajir bordering Lower Shabelle.464 In total, UNOCHA recorded 18 humanitarian access incidents in 2025,465 of which 7 were recorded in the period between July and September 2025.466 Regarding the food insecurity situation for January 2026, IPC reported that about 45 % of the total analysed population of 3 289 438 were either in Acute Food Insecurity IPC Phase 2 (stressed, 34 %), 3 (crisis, 9 % in) or 4 (emergency, 2 %).467 Benadir was reportedly hosting the largest concentration of IDPs in the country with an estimated IDP population of 1.06 million at the end of 2025.468 Between January and August 2025, 115 020 individuals were reportedly forcibly evicted in Benadir.469 NRC recorded 149 452 evictions in 2025 and 8 574 in the first three months of 2026.470 Inequitable aid distribution was reported to create tensions between IDP and host communities in Daynile, Kaxda and Garasbaley, with locals reporting exclusion from service lists and youth gangs limiting safe access to WASH, healthcare and markets.471 No current information could be found regarding infrastructure damage.
- 424
UNOCHA, Somalia Administrative Reference Map, as of 20 July 2023, url
- 425
World Bank, Somalia Urbanization Review: Fostering Cities as Anchors of Development, January 2021, url, p. 91
- 426
IPC, Somalia: Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Analysis January-June 2026, 24 February 2026, url, p. 4
- 427
RDI, Final Report to Conduct: Conflict Protection Sensitive Analysis in Somalia, NRC, 29 January 2026, url, p. 17
- 428
Inside Somalia, AUSSOM takes over UK operation base in Mogadishu, 29 March 2026, url; APA News, al-Shabaab shell AUSSOM base in Mogadishu, 7 April 2025, url
- 429
Bryden, M., Somalia at Risk of Becoming a Jihadist State, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 17 November 2025, url, p. 9
- 430
Norway, Landinfo, Somalia: Sikkerhetssituasjonen i Mogadishu per januar 2026, 19 February 2026, url, p. 8; Soufan Center (The), Al-Shabaab’s 2025 Offensive and the Unraveling of Somalia’s Federal Counterinsurgency, 24 July 2025, url
- 431
Soufan Center (The), Al-Shabaab’s 2025 Offensive and the Unraveling of Somalia’s Federal Counterinsurgency, 24 July 2025, url
- 432
Bryden, M., Somalia at Risk of Becoming a Jihadist State, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 17 November 2025, url, p. 1
- 433
Bryden, M., Somalia at Risk of Becoming a Jihadist State, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 17 November 2025, url, p. 1; Guardian (The), ‘The fear was immense’: al-Shabaab exploits fragmented politics to reclaim land in Somalia, 4 October 2025, url
- 434
Norway, Landinfo, Somalia: Sikkerhetssituasjonen i Mogadishu per januar 2026, 19 February 2026, url, p. 8
- 435
UN Security Council, Thirty-seventh report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2734 (2024) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities, S/2026/44, 4 February 2026, url, para. 38
- 436
Jackson, A., Flailing State: The Resurgence of al-Shabaab in Somalia, War on the Rocks, 3 June 2025, url
- 437
UN Security Council, Thirty-seventh report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2734 (2024) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities, S/2026/44, 4 February 2026, url, para. 38
- 438
Reuters, Mogadishu suicide bomber kills at least 10 at army recruitment drive, 18 May 2025, url; Al Jazeera, At least 13 reported killed in suicide bomb blast in Somalia’s Mogadishu, 18 May 2025, url
- 439
SG, Suicide bomber targets Somali military academy during visit by Western officials, 9 July 2025, url
- 440
UN Security Council, Report of the Panel of Experts on Somalia pursuant to resolution 2713 (2023), S/2025/777, 28 November 2025, url, para. 16; Garowe Online, How Al Shabaab raided high security Intelligence detention facility in Mogadishu, 5 October 2025, url
- 441
UNSG, Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia, S/2025/613, 30 September 2025, url, para. 14
- 442
SG, Heavy mortar shells strike Mogadishu airport, 5 June 2025, url; Horn Observer, Mortar Attacks Escalate Amid Rising Security Concerns at Mogadishu Airport, 6 April 2025, url
- 443
SG, Mortar attack targets heavily fortified Halane base in Mogadishu amid rising militant violence, 20 May 2025, url; Dawan, ATMIS Condemns Deadly Mortar Attack on Halane Base Camp in Mogadishu, 12 May 2025, url
- 444
Garowe Online, Mortar Attack Near Somali Presidential Palace Kills Two, Wounded Five, 19 April 2025, url
- 445
UNSG, Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia, S/2025/613, 30 September 2025, url, para. 15
- 446
GI-TOC, Commerce Under Siege, Disrupting Al-Shabaab’s Hold On Mogadishu’s Economy, April 2025, url, p. 3
- 447
EUAA analysis based on publicly available ACLED data. ACLED, Data Export Tool, Somalia, data covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, as of 16 April 2026, url
- 448
EUAA analysis based on publicly available ACLED data. ACLED, Data Export Tool, Somalia, data covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, as of 16 April 2026, url
- 449
EUAA analysis based on publicly available ACLED data. ACLED, Data Export Tool, Somalia, data covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, as of 16 April 2026, url
- 450
EUAA analysis based on publicly available ACLED data. ACLED, Data Export Tool, Somalia, data covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, as of 16 April 2026, url
- 451
Garowe Online, Mortar Attack Near Somali Presidential Palace Kills Two, Wounded Five, 19 April 2025, url
- 452
UNSG, Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia, S/2025/613, 30 September 2025, url, para. 14; Al Jazeera, At least 13 reported killed in suicide bomb blast in Somalia’s Mogadishu, 18 May 2025, url
- 453
UNSG, Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia, S/2025/613, 30 September 2025, url, para. 14
- 454
Somali Digest (The), Damanyo Attack Reveals Security Gaps, Shaken Army Morale, 18 May 2025, url
- 455
SG, Suicide bomber targets Somali military academy during visit by Western officials, 9 July 2025, url
- 456
UNSG, Report of the Secretary-General on Somalia, S/2025/613, 30 September 2025, url, para. 14
- 457
AP, Al-Shabab claims responsibility for an explosion at a Somalia military training school, 9 July 2025, url
- 458
UN Security Council, Report of the Panel of Experts on Somalia pursuant to resolution 2713 (2023), S/2025/777, 28 November 2025, url, para. 16; Garowe Online, How Al Shabaab raided high security Intelligence detention facility in Mogadishu, 5 October 2025, url
- 459
AP, Somali government forces end a 6-hour siege at a major prison, killing all 7 attackers, 5 October 2025, url
- 460
International Crisis Group, Crisis
- 461
UNHCR, PRMN Datafile – Somalia, as of 16 April 2026, url
- 462
UN Security Council, Report of the Panel of Experts on Somalia pursuant to resolution 2713 (2023), S/2025/777, 28 November 2025, url, para. 95
- 463
Radio Ergo, Conflict in Lower Shabelle sends families fleeing to desolate camps in Mogadishu, 29 September 2025, url
- 464
UNOCHA, Somalia Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 , 27 January 2026, url, p. 17
- 465
UNOCHA, Humanitarian Access Snapshot (2025), 8 January 2026, url, p. 2
- 466
UNOCHA, Humanitarian Access Snapshot (July – September 2025), 15 October 2025, url, p. 2
- 467
IPC, Somalia: Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Analysis January-June 2026, 24 February 2026, url, p. 8
- 468
RDI, Final Report to Conduct: Conflict Protection Sensitive Analysis in Somalia, NRC, 29 January 2026, url, p. 13
- 469
RDI, Final Report to Conduct: Conflict Protection Sensitive Analysis in Somalia, NRC, 29 January 2026, url, p. 8
- 470
NRC, Evictions, n.d., url, filter ‘2025’ and ‘2026’ as year respectively, ‘Banaadir’ as region. Numbers include data until 31 March 2026, as of 8 April 2026.
- 471
RDI, Final Report to Conduct: Conflict Protection Sensitive Analysis in Somalia, NRC, 29 January 2026, url, p. 52