West-Africa

Former President of Senegal, Macky Sall, has asserted that achieving lasting global peace hinges on addressing the persistent issues of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. As he positions himself as a contender to replace UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Sall's insights come just ahead of a public inquiry at the United Nations headquarters in New York this week. Introduced in 2016, the public Q&A format aims to foster transparency during the selection process. Nonetheless, the final authority to appoint the…

Tuesday April 21, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Iran on Tuesday sharply criticized Israel’s decision to appoint an ambassador to North Western State of Somalia, accusing Israel of violating international law and undermining Somalia’s territorial integrity as tensions deepen over the breakaway region. In remarks released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the move ran afoul of the United Nations Charter and amounted to an affront to Somalia’s sovereignty. “This unauthorized measure is in blatant…

The Nigerian government has officially charged a number of retired senior military officers in connection with an alleged coup attempt aimed at unseating President Bola Tinubu. The accused appeared before a Federal High Court in Abuja, facing a serious 13-count indictment that includes conspiring to "levy war against the state." Reports suggest that the conspirators planned to invade the Presidential Villa, seize control of the government, and imprison President Tinubu along with other senior officials. This intricate…

The military government has escalated its crackdown on civil society, recently dissolving 118 organizations, with many focusing on human rights advocacy. The authorities have invoked a law regarding freedom of association enacted in July 2025, yet they have provided little justification beyond ambiguous claims of noncompliance. This latest move is part of a larger pattern of repression that emerged following the military coup in September 2022. Since that takeover, the regime has systematically targeted non-governmental…

Tuesday April 21, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s constitutional watchdog has moved to force a long-simmering political question into the open, telling cabinet ministers who also sit in parliament that they must give up one of their posts. In a statement released Monday, the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission (ICRIC) said the instruction is grounded in the new federal constitution, which requires a strict separation between the executive and legislative branches. According to the commission, no…

Tuesday April 21, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia has entered into a cooperation agreement with China aimed at broadening the use of satellite technology in national development, a move that signals the country’s growing ambitions in the fields of space and data systems. The memorandum of understanding was signed at the NewSpace Africa Conference 2026 in Libreville by Somalia’s Department of Space and Satellite, which operates under the Ministry of Communications and Technology, and China’s Land Satellite Remote Sensing…

Monday April 20, 2026 Jowhar (AX) — Hirshabelle State President Ali Abdullahi Hussein Guudlaawe has directed his cabinet to accelerate preparations for Somalia’s planned one-person-one-vote elections, pressing for wider public engagement even as political fault lines and security worries grow around the process. Guudlaawe urged officials to step up voter education campaigns and bolster administrative readiness ahead of the expected polls. He also called on residents of Hirshabelle to take part actively in the electoral…

Monday April 20, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s media landscape is still operating under heavy pressure, with journalists facing repeated attacks and those behind them largely escaping punishment, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said. In its annual State of the Media report, released Sunday, the union recorded 72 violations of media freedom from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2025, and said the pattern of abuse was broad, persistent and deeply rooted. The report said 70 of the cases involved individual…

Monday April 20, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — In a bid to calm mounting political tensions, Somali opposition leaders sat down with influential Hawiye clan elders in Mogadishu on Sunday, as the country edges closer to a disputed electoral process. The discussions drew a number of prominent opposition figures, among them former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and former Prime Ministers Hassan Ali Khaire and Mohamed Hussein Roble, as well as lawmakers and other political actors. At the center of the talks was Somalia’s increasingly…

By BRUHAN MAKONGMonday April 20, 2026 The African Union has sharply criticised Israel’s appointment of a diplomatic envoy to North Western State of Somalia, saying the move risks stirring fresh instability in the Horn of Africa and does nothing to alter its view that the territory remains part of Somalia. The African Union has condemned reports that Israel has appointed a diplomatic envoy to the self-declared Republic of North Western State of Somalia, insisting that any unilateral recognition of the territory is “null and…