Russia says it wants to help the regime in Mogadishu fight terrorist groups, mainly the militant Islamist movements al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda.
The groups have for a long time challenged the central government in Somalia through extensive acts of violence.
The signal from Lavrov is at the same time another example of how Moscow seeks to strengthen ties with African countries that Western countries have partly turned their backs on, often because they are military dictatorships or flagrantly violate human rights.
The Russian paramilitary group Wagner is also active in several countries, including Mali, the Central African Republic and Libya. Often the assignment comes from the country’s regimes and payment can be natural resources or part ownership in, for example, mines.
Somalia is trying to get closer to Russia, which it previously broke with when Russia actively took the side of neighboring countries in conflicts, including during Somalia’s war against Ethiopia in 1978.