West Africa

Disqualified candidate arrested after fatal election clashes shake Somalia’s northeast LAS ANOD, Somalia — Security forces in Somalia’s northeast have arrested a wealthy businessman who was disqualified from a regional presidential race, accusing him of mobilizing armed supporters who battled police during an August 29 vote at a hotel in Las Anod. The violence left several people dead, according to local elders, and delayed burials as families spar over where and how to lay their loved ones to rest. What happened Police…

Somalia inches up the Global Peace Index — but the peace dividend remains out of reach In Mogadishu, markets open before sunrise, as vendors arrange tomatoes beneath corrugated roofs and scan their phones for security alerts with the same routine as checking prices. That small, practiced caution has defined Somali life for a generation. This week, a global metric offered a sliver of encouragement: Somalia has improved slightly on the 2025 Global Peace Index, edging to 151st out of 163 with a score of 2.983 — its first dip…

Analysis: In Mogadishu’s Operating Rooms, a Simple Checklist Meets a Tough Reality In a city where surgeons work under the hum of generators and the steady pressure of backlogged cases, a new study from Mogadishu has surfaced a paradox at the heart of patient safety: most clinicians know the World Health Organization’s surgical safety checklist, but relatively few use it. In Somalia’s fragile health system, that gap between knowledge and practice can be the difference between a safe outcome and a preventable tragedy. What…

Somalia’s New Tax Law Is About More Than Money In a packed hall in Mogadishu this week, government officials and business leaders did something that once sounded abstract in a country battered by conflict and aid dependence: they debated tax brackets, compliance, and what a fair state should ask of its citizens. Somalia introduced a new tax law at its annual tax forum, pitched by officials as the backbone of a modern state and a path away from foreign aid. The timing is not an accident—and the stakes are high. Why this…

In Nuneaton, a Viral Claim Meets the Reality of a Town Finding Its Footing Nuneaton, the Warwickshire market town better known as the birthplace of novelist George Eliot, has been dragged into a national argument over crime and belonging after one man’s anguished appeal went viral: “The country is not safe. But my country, now, I’m safe. I want to go back.” The speaker, 50-year-old former asylum seeker Yusuf Ali Hamud, told Sky News he has been urging the Home Office to send him back to Somalia. His assertion that Nuneaton…

Out in the Open: Somalia’s Displaced Families Wait for Help That Isn’t Coming At first light on the outskirts of Afgoye, the land looks deceptively generous—open sky, a stretch of scrubland, a hint of green beyond the road. Then you notice the mats laid directly on the earth, the improvised shelters of sticks and cloth, and children cupping their hands for sips of water measured out like medicine. This is where hundreds of families displaced by fighting in southern Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region have gathered, waiting for…

In central Minnesota, a Somali-American doctor builds a clinic that speaks the community’s language On a winter Saturday in St. Cloud, the parking lot outside a modest strip mall is doing brisk business. Children in puffy coats hop between parents’ hands. A woman steps out of a halal butcher shop with a paper sack of lamb bones for soup. A door just down the row swings open, and a man in a pale-blue medical coat ushers in a family. Inside Hayat Clinic, the hum is steady and familiar: a child’s cough, a greeting in Somali, a…

The Tragedy on the Waters: Nigeria’s Ongoing Struggle with Boat Safety The serene waters of Nigeria’s rivers tell stories of life, commerce, and community. Yet, they also harbor shadows of tragedy, as demonstrated by the recent sinking of a passenger boat in Niger State. This harrowing incident, which occurred while carrying an estimated 90 people, has left the nation grappling with yet another stark reminder of the dangers faced by those who traverse its waterways. On an overcast morning, as the boat set sail from Tungan…

Kenya’s Coast Confronts Grisly Exhumations in Suspected Cult Killings, Stirring Painful Memories of Shakahola Kenyan authorities have uncovered dozens of bodies and human remains from shallow graves in Kilifi County in what investigators fear is a return of cult-linked killings that shocked this region last year. Police say 11 suspects are in custody and four are being treated as key targets of a widening probe into deaths at a site known locally as Kwa Binzaro, inland from Kenya’s turquoise coastline. Police Chief Douglas…

Somalia says senior al-Shabaab figures killed in Hiiraan raid Mogadishu — Somalia’s intelligence service says it has killed several senior al-Shabaab figures in a planned operation in the country’s center, striking what officials described as a militant stronghold in the Hiiraan region. The operation, carried out by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) with support from international partners, took place in the Shaw area, long considered a rear base and staging ground for the al-Qaeda-linked group. What…