East Africa

Two defendants were convicted during the trial of the attack on the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013. The third was acquitted. From our correspondent in Nairobi Seven years as a family awaited this judgment. After five suspensions and more than three hours of reading, Judge Francis Andayi finally declared two of the three guilty suspects of "conspiracy", "support" or even "possession of objects linked to an act of terrorism". The first, Mohamed Ahmed Abdi, taught Islam in Nairobi.…

A Kenyan court on Wednesday found two men guilty of their role in helping al-Shabaab gunmen who attacked the Westgate shopping center in Nairobi in 2013 and killed 67 people. A third man accused of the attack was acquitted. Following a trial that began in January 2014, Judge Francis Andayi found that Mohamed Ahmed Abdi and Hassan Hussein Mustafa conspired with and assisted the four assailants who died in a siege claimed by the Somali-based al-Qaida-based group. The third accused, Liban Abdullahi Omar, was acquitted of…

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Two Cuban doctors kidnapped by Al-Shabaab militants have been released, 18 months after their dramatic abduction, raising eyebrows over the doctor's security in Kenya, where their government had reached an agreement with Nairobi as part of strengthening bilateral ties. Surgeon Landy Rodríguez and general medicine specialist Assel Herrera were kidnapped on April 12, 2019, when the car in which they were traveling to the hospital in the border town of Mandera was attacked by alleged members of the…

NAIROBI, Kenya - Suspected Al-Shabaab militants detained a Nairobi-bound bus in the latest attack inside Kenyan territory, a senior police officer said in an attack that left at least eight passengers badly wounded inside the porous northeastern region. Joshua Kitakwa, deputy commissioner for Mandera South, said the latest attack took place between El-Wak and Kotulo towns near the border with Mandera and Wajir counties. It is the first attack in Kenya by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in so many months. "We still…

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A contingent from the Somali National Army on Tuesday fought with Al-Shabaab militants in Basra in an operation that lasted for hours as the country struggles to restore order in various parts of the Horn of Africa, which has yet to fully defeat the Al-Qaeda-linked group. Al-Shabaab militants still control large parts of central and southern Somalia in the countryside, but ongoing operations have drastically weakened the group, which is also struggling to contain internal disparities.…

KISMAYO, Somalia - The long-standing standoff between the federal government of Somalia and the state of Jubaland could escalate in the coming weeks over the continued stay of the Somali national army troops in the region, over a month after both sides reached a preliminary agreement on the withdrawal of the soldiers. Since January, SNA troops have been cooperating with the Ethiopian national defense forces has tightened its grip on Gedo, a region that should primarily be under Kenya's defense forces under the…

In Sudan, negotiations continue with the two major rebel movements that have not signed the text, following the signing of peace agreements with certain armed groups last weekend. There is still much to be done for Khartoum to understand to the two absent from Juba, the movement of Abdelaziz al-Hilu and Darfouri Abdelwahid el-Nur. Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok repeated it the following Sunday the signing of the Juba Agreements. One of his most important tasks now is to find common ground with the important uprising of…

Last August, President Evariste Ndayishimiye opposed a rejection of Paul Kagame's outstretched hand, proposing to turn the page after five years of squabbling. And despite the recent meeting between military intelligence from the two countries and the return of more than a thousand Burundian refugees, a new incident took place in the border area.…

For two weeks, the Tananariv capital has been surrounded by a thick mantle of fog that is visible for miles around and suffocates its inhabitants. The years go by and the situation is still the same. as reported from Antananarivo, As the hot season approaches, the Big Island gets a new face. Slash-and-burn cultivation (tavy) is in full swing among farmers, masonry runs night and day, bush fires set the plains on fire. These intense periodic fumes are added to the daily smoke from coal mining in forests, old vehicles…

KISMAYO, Somalia - Newly appointed Commander of the African Union Mission Forces Lieutenant Normal Diomede Ndegeya ended his tour of familiarity with the remaining AMISOM sectors in Somalia as he embarks on a protracted journey to revive order and lead the overseas troops out of the Horn of Africa. The AMISOM staff has six sectors in Somalia, primarily manned by troops from particular nations. On Wednesday, Lieutenant Ndegeya visited the Kenya Protection Forces serving in Sector II and VI earlier than finishing…