By Nuh Mohamed - Reporter
Somalia, 7 April 2026 Jamhuriya University of Science and Technology, in partnership with the University of Djibouti, has launched the Somali-language AI and Innovation Lab (SAIL), a ground-breaking research hub that promises to revolutionize the integration of Somali language into artificial intelligence and boost digital inclusion in the region.
The inauguration of the lab marks a major step in bridging the "digital gap" for the Somali language, ensuring it is represented in the rapidly evolving field of global technology.
“We have opened a centre that will specifically work on the development of Somali in technology, so that our language reaches a high level,” said Mohamed Ahmed, Chairman of Jamhuriya University. “Our goal is to enhance the data that artificial intelligence holds regarding the Somali language.”
Following the establishment of the lab, researchers unveiled its first major output: a pioneering project titled "Somali-Written Fake News on Social Media using NLP and Deep Learning."
This specific research project addresses the rise of misinformation on platforms like Facebook and X by using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze linguistic patterns unique to the Somali language.
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According to project documents, the specialized Somali language model, SomBERTa, achieved a 98 per cent accuracy rate in distinguishing between fabricated and genuine news articles—a breakthrough for "low-resource" languages that often lack automated moderation tools.
The launch was attended by Djibouti’s Ambassador to Somalia, Mohamed Ibrahim Yusuf, who noted that the initiative aligns with the vision of Djibouti to modernize and preserve the Somali tongue.
“The Djibouti government protects the language; we established the Somali Language Academy, which has played a major role in this initiative, and our President has invested in it,” the Ambassador said.
The Fake News project will soon be available to media organizations and policymakers to sanitize the digital information environment.
The work has already gained international recognition, with the research findings presented at the AfricaNLP-ACL 2025 conference.
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