WASHINGTON, 14 January 2022, (TON): The US has brandished the threat of sanctions if troubled Somalia misses its latest deadline for elections.

Somali leaders on Sunday announced that elections that were due to be concluded last year will take place by Feb. 25.

The State Department’s Africa bureau said in a Twitter post “Somalia’s elections are more than a year behind schedule. The US is prepared to take measures against spoilers if the new National Consultative Council timeline is not met.”

The mandate of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohammed, better known as Farmajo, expired in February 2021 and was controversially extended in April, triggering deadly gunbattles in the streets of Mogadishu.

World powers have voiced fear that election delays, as well as the ongoing feud between Farmajo and Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble, could set off new troubles for a country that has lacked stable governance for three decades.

According to UN estimates “Somalia is battling a deadly insurgency by Al-Shabab extremists and is in the grip of a drought that has left one in four people facing acute hunger.”