At least 24 Somali shopkeepers and owners have been killed since January, according to the Somali Community Board of South Africa, which blames police inaction for the unabated extortion of foreign-owned businesses and killings in the townships.

In a highly contentious move, Somalia’s president has extended his own term in office by two years, drawing condemnation from the United States and other allies who viewed it as a naked power grab that could upend faltering efforts to establish a functioning state in Somalia and defeat the insurgency by the extremist group Al Shabab.

U.S. defense and intelligence officials have long considered the Somalia-based al-Shabab one of the gravest threats emanating from Africa, targeting the group with 53 airstrikes in 2020 and  63 airstrikes in 2019.