The electronic visa platform that the Somalia government put in place last month and touted it as the panacea to its immigration and citizenship problem came down tumbling last week.
And in the face of its crumbling at the behest of hacksters, thousands of sensitive personal data of travelers who used the system was laid bare for anyone who cared to read to the chagrin of travelers especially in the United States and United Kingdom.
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When the system was breached, instinctively the big boys in Mogadishu denied the e-visa platform had been hacked and the Somali immigration agency’s director-general Mustafa Sheikh Ali Duhulow dismissed media reports about the breach as “coordinated misinformation campaigns” intended to undermine state institutions.
Duhulow, speaking to an audience last Saturday days after the breach, said a Somali individual cannot undermine the dignity, authority, honour or unity of the state. The director general fell short of conceding that the platform had been hacked.
But to the surprise of the director general, at least 35,000 people including thousands of American and United Kingdom citizens may have had their data compromised by the unidentified hackers.
The leak came to wider attention following the exposure of clusters of accounts on the social media platform X and circulation of what they claimed was personal information from affected individuals.
The US embassy in Mogadishu in a statement to the media was categorical that the e-visa platform had been breached and private data of some of its citizens who had used the immigration system had been compromised.
The following day, the UK embassy joined in warning travelers about the data breach saying it could expose any personal data entered into the system advising travelers to consider the risks before applying for an e-visa.
Soon after, the government, through the immigration agency scrambled a response conceding that indeed the platform had been hit by hacksters and it was treating the issue with “special importance”. It also announced that it had launched an investigation into the issue.
But criticism on how the government had handled the issue was fast and furious. Mohamed Ibrahim, a former Somali telecommunications minister and tech expert, told Al Jazeera that while hacking is a significant challenge, the authorities’ lack of transparency was troubling.
He noted that Somalia was not high-tech, and the government should have been upfront with the public.
Similarly, the breach sparked fury among officials in Somaliland with Mohamed Hagi, an adviser to Somaliland’s president, calling the Mogadishu administration “institutionally irresponsible” for keeping the visa portal active despite the breach.
While the immigration agency said it was investigating the extent of the attempted breach, its origin, and any potential impact, it was quiet on the number of people affected by the breach. It promised to directly reach out to those affected.
That it took almost a week for the government to concede that the e-visa platform had been breached and after a statement from the US embassy infuriated those affected.
The e-visa platform was launched with pomp but received with protests from some federal member states particularly Puntland who said they had not been consulted before by the government in Mogadishu rolled it out throughout the country. The state rejected the e-visa system.
The breakaway Somaliland republic similarly rejected the new e-visa system and maintained that travelers to Hargeisa would be issued with a visa on arrival at the airport.
Soon after the launch of the platform, Somalia’s Defence Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi had praised the electronic visa system, claiming it had successfully prevented Islamic State (ISIS) fighters from entering the country, as battle continued in the northern regions against a local affiliate of the group.
The breach has cast a spotlight on the vulnerabilities of a digital system that Somalia’s government had promoted as essential for improving national security.
The government has since quietly moved its e-visa system to a new website.
The incident came amid escalating tensions between Somalia and Somaliland over airspace control.
Somalia’s government has been working to tighten control of its national airspace and centralise visa procedures, despite authority in the country being fragmented among autonomous regional states.
Just one day before the breach emerged, Somaliland declared that “entry visas issued by the Federal Government of Somalia bear no legal validity” within its territory
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Meanwhile, is the 2026 presidential election in Somalia shaping to be one between the incumbent and former presidents and prime ministers?
Last Thursday the immediate former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo arrived in Mogadishu marking his first return to the capital since leaving office in 2022.
Farmaajo, who spent most of the past three years abroad aside from a brief visit to Garowe in early 2024, returned amid preparations by the National Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (NIEBC) for local council elections in Mogadishu scheduled for November 29, 2025.
Somalia is also gearing up for national elections in 2026, including the presidential and parliamentary contests.
During his time abroad, Farmaajo emerged as a prominent opposition figure, frequently criticizing his successor Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s administration and the electoral process.
While Farmaajo has not publicly stated the purpose of his return, political analysts suggest it signals intentions to re-engage in Somalia’s political landscape ahead of the upcoming elections.
Should he join the presidential race for next year’s election, he will have widened the cast of prominent former Somali leaders angling to occupy Villa Somalia.
Two weeks ago former Somalia Prime minister Abdi Farah Shirdoon was named as a presidential candidate for a Qatari-backed coalition, the National Dignity Union (NDU). He is expected to take on the incumbent president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s coalition, the Justice and Solidarity Party (JSP).
And yet another opposition parties’ coalition is taking shape in Mogadishu bringing together former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire and prominent politician Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame.
Should this coalition settle on Sharif or Khaire, it will set a bruising battle of titans for Villa Somalia come 2026.
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By David Okwembah