A power grab by Somalia’s president has tipped it into crisis

“STAND UP HERE too long and you’ll be a target,” warns the manager of a hotel near the airport in Mogadishu. Visible from the rooftop are two watchtowers and several military checkpoints. In the basement is a bunker. The risks for visitors to this fortified enclave of the Somali capital are not hypothetical: on February 19th a rocket-propelled grenade hit a row of shops near its edge.Protesters say it was fired at them by government forces. Tempers have been high since the indefinite postponement of presidential elections last month. This has left a question-mark over the legitimacy of Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, whose presidential term was meant to have ended in early February. His power grab has pulled Somalia into a crisis that threatens to set back its tentative state-building.