Mahad Wasuge

I received an invitation from the Doha Forum, the International Crisis Group, and the African Union Political Affairs, Peace, and Security Department on November 20 to participate as a speaker at the 23rd edition of the Doha Forum, held on December 6–7, 2025, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Doha. I was particularly invited to speak at a closed-door roundtable session titled “State-building in Somalia: Coordinated Strategies to Sustain Progress.” It was a great and rare opportunity to be invited as a speaker for my first time attending the Doha Forum. This year’s theme of the Doha Forum was Justice in Action: Beyond Promises to Progress.

I recently received an invitation to attend the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Arta Peace Conference and the inauguration of the Arta Peace Memorial. The memorial has been built at the same location where the historic conference for Somalia was held 25 years ago. I was pleased to receive the invitation and happy to know that efforts had been made to document evidence of that important conference for Somalia that led to the birth of the Third Republic – the Transitional National Government (TNG).

I recently traveled to Garowe to attend the third Annual Peace Conference, held from 21–23 September 2025. The conference, convened annually by the Puntland Development and Research Center (PDRC), often begins on 21 September—the International Day of Peace—and focuses on peace-related issues. This year’s theme was “Climate, Peace, and Security: Building a Peaceful and Resilient Future.”

Nearly three months ago—April 7, to be exact—I was selected to participate in a Transformational Leadership course scheduled for June 9–20, 2025, in Arusha, Tanzania. I submitted my application on March 24, the final deadline and the same day I received the request to apply. It was during Ramadan. Fortunately, I was nominated and then selected for the course, which was tailored for leaders from both governmental and non-governmental institutions across Africa.

I travelled to Kismayo on Friday, 23 May. The trip was part of a series of roundtable discussions that Somali Public Agenda (SPA) and Puntland Development Research Center (PDRC) were convening to explore options for compromise on FGS-FMS relations, constitutional review, and elections.

On the early morning of Thursday, 27 February 2025, my wife, Shukri, called me with heartbreaking news: my beloved sister, Fowsiya Abdullahi Hussein, had passed away just moments before. At the time, I was in Nairobi, far from Mogadishu, where she took her last breath. The news overwhelmed me with grief. As I turned on my internet, I saw numerous missed calls from my mother and siblings. The painful reality set in—I had to plan her burial alongside other family members in Mogadishu. That same day, we laid her to rest.

Despite these realities, this is home. It is where I feel a sense of belonging. I visited and spent time with family members, relatives, neighbors, and friends. I asked my mother about the neighbors and visited them.

Dear son Mohamed,
This has been an important week for our family and for you. You have successfully completed the memorization of the Holy Quran, and we had the privilege of witnessing you speak in front of hundreds of participants at your graduation ceremony on December 4. You cannot imagine how proud we were to see you

From my childhood, I was very interested in working a media as a newscaster or