After decades of protracted conflict, Somalia remains entrenched in instability, grappling with persistent threats and attacks from armed groups, including violent extremist and terrorist organizations. Despite territorial gains made in recent years by the Somali National Army (SNA) and African Union forces, Al-Shabaab continues to control and exert influence over significant areas, particularly in the south and central regions. Meanwhile, in the north, a faction of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) has also established a foothold.
In an environment of volatile politics and localized security vacuums, non-state armed groups exploit governance gaps, stepping into the void left by fragile institutions, an untrusted state, and widespread social inequality. Violent extremist groups sustain their influence through sophisticated narratives, clan-based recruitment strategies, and a mix of coercion and service provision. Al-Shabaab leverages structural inequalities, including the grievances of those marginalized by clan-based power-sharing structures, to advance its recruitment and influence. It presents itself as a proto-state competitor, reinforcing its appeal through a narrative of unity and equality in faith, positioning itself as an inclusive force against exclusionary clan dynamics. This, combined with coercion, propaganda, and service provision, allows the group to maintain its hold over communities. Its tactics include propaganda campaigns aimed at delegitimizing the government, indoctrination through school curricula that manipulate religious teachings for recruitment, parallel justice systems that position the group as an alternative to state institutions, and an organized taxation structure that sustains its operations.
To this day, conditions conducive to terrorism and violent extremism persist in both urban and rural areas. Without sustained efforts to foster local reconciliation, political inclusion, economic opportunities – especially for youth – and trust-building between communities and the state, groups like Al-Shabaab retain the tactical ability to reclaim territory and reinforce their legitimacy as providers of social services. Addressing these structural challenges is critical to weakening their appeal and ensuring long-term stability in Somalia.
UN’s PVE Plan of Action
In January 2016, the UN Secretary-General launched the Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, highlighting how violent extremism threatens peace, security, human rights, and sustainable development. The Plan recognizes that violent extremism does not emerge in isolation; rather, it is fuelled by narratives of grievance, perceptions of injustice, and promises of empowerment and radical change. These narratives gain traction particularly in contexts where governance is weak, justice is lacking, and people’s aspirations are stifled.
To address that wide range of factors contributing to violent extremism, the PVE Plan of Action focuses on seven key priority areas: dialogue and conflict prevention; good governance, the rule of law, and human rights; community engagement; youth empowerment; gender equality and women’s empowerment; education, skills development, and employment opportunities; and strategic communications, including the use of the Internet and social media. The Plan emphasizes the need for greater coordination and integration of efforts to prevent violent extremism within UN peacekeeping operations, special political missions, and United Nations Country Teams, wherever relevant and in accordance with their respective mandates.
PCVE in Somalia
In September 2016, the Federal Government of Somalia took steps to implement its obligations under United Nations Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions by adopting a National Strategy and Action Plan on Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism. While the UN’s Plan of Action emphasizes prevention, Somalia has adapted this approach to its own context — reframing the discourse around “soft power” measures to address the manifestation of violent extremism amid an ongoing armed conflict.
Somalia requested further support and assistance of the United Nations in Somalia to fully implement its obligations pursuant to relevant UN Resolutions on Countering Terrorism and Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism, including Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005), 2178 (2014), 2396 (2017) and 2464 (2019) and the Secretary-General’s Plan of Action.
With Security Council Resolution 2358 (2017), UNSOM received a mandate to advise and assist Somalia in the implementation of the National Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism. This mandate includes the support to coordinate PCVE activities, advise on specific thematic issues, share good practices and enable information exchange with other partners. Under this mandate, a first-generation PCVE programming initiative, a joint UNSOM-UNDP program, was launched.
Initiated in 2018 and concluded in 2021, the program conducted extensive community consultations and piloted PCVE initiatives across Somalia. The programme generated crucial insights into the long-standing conflict with AS, evidencing how marginalization and resulting grievances fuel radicalization. It further evidenced that military solutions alone are insufficient in dismantling terrorist organizations, highlighting how sole kinetic strategies and centralized, top-down state-building approaches tend to exacerbate exclusionary governance and fail to address legitimacy gaps.
Recognizing these shortcomings, the Somali Government made a decisive policy shift in 2022, formally endorsing a peacebuilding approach through the next-generation Joint UNSOM-UNDP PCVE program, Islaamku Waa Nabad (Islam Is Peace) – documented in Security Council Report S/2023/109. This shift marked a departure from security-focused PCVE interventions towards a conflict transformation strategy grounded in community-driven reconciliation. This paradigm shift aligns with the UN Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism advocating dialogue as a primary intervention in active conflict settings.
It underscores Somalia’s leadership in advancing non-military solutions to violent extremism. Peacebuilding- and development-centric strategies to terrorism are globally gaining traction, reflecting a broader shift in counter-terrorism discourse. Somalia, as a frontline state, is actively shaping this conversation.
UNTMIS Transition on PCVE
Following Resolution 2753, UNSOM has transitioned into the UN Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNTMIS), initiating a two-year handover of functions to the Somali Government and the UN Country Team (UNCT). The Security Council has mandated that PCVE responsibilities be transferred within 12 months to Somali state entities and UN Agencies, Funds, and Programmes (UN-AFPs), by the end of October 2025.
The UN’s Joint Programming has played a pivotal role in institutionalizing the PCVE agenda within Somali state institutions thus far. This includes the establishment of the National Tubsan Center for PCVE under the Office of the Prime Minister, which evolved from the previously established PCVE Coordination Unit. These efforts have significantly strengthened coordination across line ministries, between the Federal Government of Somalia and the Federal Member States, as well as with civil society actors. They have also supported the revision of the National PCVE Strategy, ensuring it reflects a contextualized Somali vision of tolerance, dialogue, and social cohesion.
Initially anchored in Strand 4 of Somalia’s Comprehensive Approach to Security and shaped by the coordination architecture of the London Security Pact, PCVE is now firmly embedded within key national frameworks, including the National Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the National Transformation Plan, and other guiding policy instruments that define Somalia’s peace and security agenda. With UNTMIS expected to transition ownership of the PCVE file to the Somali Government by the end of October 2025, UN agencies, funds, and programmes will continue to support implementation in a number of critical areas.
This includes promoting dialogue as a tool for peaceful coexistence, supporting non-violent conflict resolution, and addressing underlying social dynamics, including hierarchical and clan-based structures, that have contributed to marginalization and exclusion of certain communities. The UN will also continue supporting security and justice reform, the rehabilitation and reintegration of former Al-Shabaab fighters, deradicalization and risk reduction interventions in prisons, and the promotion of good governance within the security sector. Programming will further focus on strengthening community resilience, civic education, national identity, and economic empowerment as means of reducing vulnerability to violent extremism. Strategic communications will play a central role in advancing constructive counternarratives and promoting an understanding of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance. Efforts to enhance criminal justice responses and prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict — areas in which the UN Country Team continues to contribute meaningfully to Somalia’s broader peacebuilding agenda — will also remain key.
In line with the priority areas identified in the Transition Workshop jointly convened by the Somali Government and UNTMIS, and as reflected in the resulting UNTMIS Transition Roadmap, several forward-looking priorities are emerging. These include working with religious scholars to promote faith as a unifying force that transcends clan divisions; standardizing religious education and investing in peace education as a way to counter indoctrination and recruitment within religious learning environments; and elevating the voices of victims and survivors of terrorism as critical agents in community-level healing and reconciliation.
This transition moment presents a unique opportunity to embed a PCVE approach that is grounded in rigorous conflict analysis and aimed at long-term conflict transformation. It also allows the agenda to reconnect with its original conceptualization — as a sustained, political effort to address the root causes of violent extremism and contribute to a peaceful, inclusive, and resilient Somalia.