On August 21, 2025, Somalia found itself at the crossroads of political turbulence and digital misinformation, with the nation’s fragile democracy under renewed scrutiny. Two major developments dominated headlines: a viral deepfake video targeting President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and an escalating political standoff between the president and opposition leaders, most notably former Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.
Let’s start with the controversy that swept through Somali social media. According to PesaCheck, a video circulated on Facebook purporting to show President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud behind a desk, thumbing through piles of US dollar notes and declaring, “This is Somali money, and nothing can pass without going through me.” The Somali-language caption further inflamed tensions, suggesting the president was openly flaunting public funds. But was any of it real?
PesaCheck’s investigation quickly unraveled the truth. Their team extracted frames from the video and ran a Google reverse image search, coming up empty—no reputable news outlet or official source had ever published such footage. Digging deeper, the analysts noted telltale signs of artificial generation: the president’s lips and jaw moved in a rubbery, unnatural way, out of sync with the supposed speech. His fingers seemed to blend into the cash, and the stacks themselves repeated the same patterns and creases, a classic marker of AI-generated visuals. The audio, too, was off—flat, metallic, and missing the pauses and breaths of real human speech. At times, the tone didn’t match the facial movements, a dead giveaway for voice cloning and lip-sync manipulation.
To leave no doubt, PesaCheck ran the clip through DeepFake-O-Meter, a specialized tool for detecting synthetic media. The result? Both the audio and visuals were flagged as 99.9 percent AI-generated, and other detection models returned similarly damning verdicts. Even the currency in the video was wrong: while the clip showed US dollar notes, Somalia’s real currency is the shilling, with distinctive 1000 and 5000 shilling bills—not the greenbacks seen in the footage.
As PesaCheck summarized in its August 21 fact-check, “PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post with a video claiming to show the Somali president handling stacks of cash and asserting control over national funds, and finds it to be FAKE.” The organization emphasized the broader context: this incident is part of a wave of misinformation targeting Somali politics on social media, where deepfakes and manipulated content can inflame already tense situations.
Meanwhile, the political landscape in Mogadishu was heating up for entirely different reasons. On the same day, former Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble held a press conference in the capital, leveling serious accusations at President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. According to a report by HOL, Roble accused the president of using clan identity as a justification to remain in office, a move he warned could threaten Somalia’s fragile democracy and fuel further instability.
Roble, a prominent figure in the opposition National Salvation Forum, claimed that he and other politicians had met with President Hassan five times in recent months to broker agreements on constitutional amendments and the electoral process. Each time, he said, talks collapsed. “Some state presidents have been granted unlawful extensions without following either federal or regional constitutional procedures,” Roble charged, pointing to what he described as illegal term extensions for several federal member state leaders who remain in office past their mandates.
The timing of these disputes is critical. Somalia is approaching the end of its government’s four-year mandate, but there is still no inclusive electoral framework in place. Opposition figures warn that the current process looks less like a national consensus and more like an election designed by a select group—potentially weakening state institutions and undermining national unity.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, for his part, took to the stage in Dhusamareb, the capital of Galmudug state, on August 20 to defend his administration’s record. He argued that opposition figures are already represented in parliament, which approved the disputed constitutional changes. The real problem, he said, lies not in Villa Somalia, but in an opposition bloc that lacks a common vision. “The opposition I was part of in 2022 and the one that exists today are two different things,” Hassan stated. “There is no unifying vision. Everyone is going in a different direction, and that does not lead to progress.”
Hassan reiterated a central theme of his presidency—the need to complete Somalia’s long-stalled constitution and introduce a one-person, one-vote system. Both were flagship promises of his 2022 campaign, and he framed them as the foundation for a more accountable state. “We must overcome the current challenges, such as completing the constitution and returning power to the people,” he said, presenting the reforms as a way to move Somalia beyond endless political bargaining.
He also called for Somalia to move away from politics dominated by personalities and vested interests, urging the formation of strong political parties built on principles and vision. Notably, Hassan did not address the issue of term extensions in his remarks, instead faulting opposition leaders for obstructing consensus and prolonging the political deadlock.
The stakes are high. Puntland, Jubbaland, and the Somali Salvation Forum have openly rejected the federal government’s election roadmap, accusing Mogadishu of unilateral decision-making without broad agreement. The National Consultative Council previously pledged to hold state presidential elections on November 30, 2025, to align federal and regional timelines, but in states where mandates have expired, no elections have taken place.
This political deadlock is not just a domestic concern. International partners have voiced worries that unresolved disputes over constitutional changes and elections could reignite tensions, undermining recent security gains against al-Shabab militants and slowing Somalia’s fragile state-building efforts.
All the while, the specter of misinformation looms large. As PesaCheck and its partners emphasized, the proliferation of deepfakes and manipulated content on platforms like Facebook threatens to further erode trust in public institutions and inflame political divisions. Their ongoing fact-checking initiatives, in partnership with organizations like Code for Africa and Deutsche Welle Akademie, aim to provide the public with accurate information and help separate fact from fiction in a highly polarized environment.
For ordinary Somalis, the convergence of political uncertainty and digital deception is a sobering reminder of the challenges facing the country. As the November election deadline approaches and the air thickens with rumors and accusations, the need for transparency, compromise, and rigorous fact-checking has never been more urgent.
With political leaders locked in a war of words and social media awash with synthetic videos, the future of Somalia’s democracy hangs in the balance, demanding vigilance from both its citizens and the global community.