Somaliland News Agency (SOLNA)

Somaliland News Agency (SOLNA) is the official state news agency of the Somaliland government. The Somaliland Ministry of Information, Culture and National Guidance/Awareness states that SOLNA was established in 2007 by Presidential decree and mandates it to gather and disseminate local and international news to Somaliland public media outlets, including Radio Hargeisa, Somaliland National Television (SLNTV), and Dawan newspaper. The agency also monitors Somaliland-related coverage in Somali, Arabic, English, and Amharic; disseminates Somaliland-related press reports to international news agencies; supports the physical and electronic collection and record-keeping of publicly-released government documents; and works to introduce government policies and strategies through the news sector. SOLNA’s official ministry-stated mission is to provide accurate, useful, and timely information on government flagship programmes, issues of national importance, and government developments relevant to society, a state-communications mandate that distinguishes SOLNA structurally from independent news agencies.

Methodological note on jurisdiction

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has operated as a de facto state with its own governing institutions. On 26 December 2025, Israel became the first country to formally recognise Somaliland as independent. Somalia, the African Union, and other international actors rejected or criticised the move and reaffirmed Somalia’s territorial integrity. For methodological consistency with prior years and with RSF, the State Media Monitor dataset continues to classify Somaliland’s state-media outlets under the country entry for Somalia, while making clear that SOLNA operates under Somaliland government structures, not under the Federal Government of Somalia in Mogadishu.

Media assets 

News agency: SOLNA

Ownership and governance

SOLNA is owned and operated within Somaliland’s government information system and is institutionally linked to the Ministry of Information, Culture and National Guidance/Awareness. The agency’s official ministry page describes it as a department with objectives focused on government programmes, social awareness, and dissemination of government policies and strategies. The Presidential-decree origin and ministry-hosted mandate support its executive-branch integration.

Omar/Cumar Maxamed Faarax has been publicly identified in prior and social-media sources as SOLNA director/head, including an official ministry Facebook item appointing him to head the SOLNA department; however, no dedicated current 2026 ministry biography or official SOLNA leadership page was identified in this review.

The 2024–26 period brought a major leadership transition at the political level. The 13 November 2024 Somaliland presidential election produced a peaceful transfer of power: opposition candidate Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (Irro / Cirro) of the Waddani Party defeated incumbent President Muse Bihi Abdi of the Kulmiye Party, winning 63.92% of the vote against Bihi’s 34.81% and Faysal Ali Warabe’s less than 1% (UCID). The Somaliland Constitutional Court certified the results on 27 November 2024, and Cirro was inaugurated on 12 December 2024.

On 14 December 2024, President Cirro announced his cabinet, with Ahmed Yasin Sheikh Ali Ayaanle appointed as Minister of Information, Culture and National Guidance, confirmed by Somaliland’s House of Representatives on 6 January 2025. Ayaanle resigned in December 2025 following unrest linked to the Xeer Ciise ceremony. On 5 April 2026, President Cirro announced a major cabinet reshuffle, appointing Barkhad Jama Hirsi Batoon, the most-voted member of the House of Representatives in the 2021 elections, as the new Minister of Information, Culture and National Guidance/Awareness. The ministry’s English title appears variously as “Information, Culture and National Guidance” or “Information, Culture and Awareness,” reflecting translation/rendering of Wacyigelinta.

No independent SOLNA board, editorial council, autonomous public-service statute, or independent appointment framework was identified in the public sources reviewed.

Source of funding and budget

Detailed standalone budget disclosures for SOLNA were not identified in the public sources reviewed. Core operations appear to be supported through Somaliland government and Ministry of Information structures. No SOLNA-specific donor-funding stream was identified in this review.

The broader macroeconomic context, Somaliland’s contested international status restricting access to international finance, the unresolved Las Anod/Sool dispute since 2023, and the disputed 1 January 2024 Memorandum of Understanding with Ethiopia, continues to shape the funding environment for state media. Israel’s December 2025 recognition of Somaliland changed the diplomatic context without producing broad international recognition or fundamentally altering Somaliland’s financial-access constraints.

Editorial independence

SOLNA does not show meaningful institutional separation from the Somaliland executive. It was established by Presidential decree, is hosted within the Ministry of Information’s institutional structure, and its official objectives include informing the public about government flagship programmes and disseminating government policies and strategies through the news sector. No independent editorial charter, editorial council, external oversight body, autonomous statute, or public-service guarantee of editorial independence was identified.

AI and digital policy

SOLNA maintains public digital and social-media distribution via @SolnaAgency on X/Twitter, the SOLNANEWS1 Facebook page, and the agency’s website network. No public SOLNA-specific policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance (such as C2PA) was identified in this review .

May 2026