East-Africa

Tuesday April 28, 2026 A cargo ship is seen in a port in central Mogadishu Suspected pirates have seized a cargo vessel off Somalia, according to officials and maritime security groups, in what appears to be the latest sign that insecurity is returning to waters once notorious for such attacks. The reported hijacking on Monday was the second off Somalia in less than a week. The target was the Sward, a St Kitts and Nevis-flagged ship carrying cement from Suez, Egypt, to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. The incident comes at…

By Margaret KalekyeTuesday April 28, 2026 A Somali national has been convicted and jailed for belonging to the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Abdikarim Hassanow Hassan, also known as Ali, was sentenced on Monday by the Kahawa magistrates’ court after the Director of Public Prosecutions called four witnesses. The court handed Hassanow 10 years’ imprisonment for membership in Al-Shabaab, and a further 10 years for organising a meeting in support of a terrorist group. He was also given 10 years for radicalisation, another 10…

Teachers have thrown their weight behind civil servants’ demands for higher wages, giving the government 14 days to act or risk major disruptions to the upcoming school term. Their warning follows April salary adjustments that public sector workers have rejected as inadequate. "The current salary structure does not reflect the cost of living, which is largely indexed in USD. Our members' conclusion is clear: there was no meaningful increment in real terms," said Tapedza Zhou, Secretary General of the Educators Union of…

Tuesday April 28, 2026 Nairobi (AX) — A Kenyan court has authorized investigators to hold a Somali female political aspirant from Garissa County for 10 days as they pursue allegations of hate speech and incitement to violence, authorities said Monday. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said Bare Sahara Ahmed is being detained at Kilimani Police Station after the Chief Magistrate’s Court at Kahawa Law Courts in Nairobi approved the request. Investigators said the extra time is needed to examine digital material,…

Monday April 27, 2026 Hargeisa (AX) — Israel has named its first ambassador to North Western State of Somalia, moving ahead with diplomatic ties months after becoming the first country to recognize the self-declared republic, the foreign ministry said Sunday. Michael Lotem, who currently serves as Israel’s roaming economic ambassador to Africa, will take up the post in North Western State of Somalia. He has previously represented Israel in Kenya, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Israel formally recognized North Western State of…

by Maxwell Amunga Monday April 27, 2026 Emergency responders at the aircraft accident scene on March 5, 2024 (left) and parts of the plane after the accident. Photo Aviation News Kenya has launched a formal inquiry into a string of aircraft accidents involving its planes in Somalia and South Sudan, with Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir appointing a special investigation team to dig into the incidents. CS Chirchir gazetted the Aircraft Accident Investigation Team in a notice dated April 24, relying on the…

Humanitarian operations in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado are being stretched thin as communities contend with both militant violence and extreme weather, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD) has warned. Marques Naba, the INGC Cabo Delgado delegate, said aid efforts must be reshaped to meet “a complex and simultaneous scenario'. He noted that in the current rainy season alone, 4,570 houses were affected, including 1,316 that were destroyed. Conflict continues to uproot civilians: at least 434,000 people…

Somalia’s election plans for 2026 sit at the centre of a wider political transition, involving federal institutions, regional states, and a long list of external partners. Over the past year, international stakeholders have focused on one main goal: helping Somalia conduct elections that are credible, inclusive, and accepted by key domestic actors—while also supporting the security conditions needed for voting. Background: How Somalia’s election process is shaped Somalia’s political system is built on a federal model,…

Sundus AbdiSaturday April 25, 2026 Ifrah F Ahmed turned to Somali community members around the world to research her book, Soomaaliya: Food, Memory and Migration. Photograph: Khadija Farah On a video call from Brooklyn, with a book tour stretching between cities, Ifrah F Ahmed sips ginger-root tea. The aroma pulls her back to a childhood kitchen where her mother would often bake fragrant cardamom cake. “That’s a core childhood memory for me,” she said. For Ahmed, food has never been only about eating. It carries memory,…

By Abdi Ismail SamatarSaturday April 25, 2026 Turkey has cast Somalia as a gateway to the Horn of Africa and, potentially, far beyond. But that ambition can only take root if Somalia first regains political stability. Trying to rebuild the Somali Defence Force without a clear national political framework is like setting out on a long trip with no map. In 2011, the West bluntly blamed al-Shabaab for Somalia’s famine. Yet the deeper cause was American policy under the Obama Administration, which blocked food deliveries to…