Somalia

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…

Slovakia shock Germany 2-0 in Bratislava, ending the four-time champions’ flawless away record in World Cup qualifiers An opening-night jolt in Group A BRATISLAVA — Germany have survived many lean nights since lifting the World Cup in 2014. But few defeats will sting quite like this. On Thursday, Slovakia beat the four-time champions 2-0 in a taut, disciplined performance that handed Germany their first-ever away loss in a World Cup qualifier and set off fresh alarm bells about a team that has promised to rebuild — but…

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…

New Strategies in Somalia: A Collaborative Fight Against Al-Shabaab MOGADISHU, Somalia — In the sunlit corridors of Mogadishu's presidential palace, a significant conversation unfolded this week. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, the new commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), to initiate a new chapter in the ongoing battle against the al-Qaida affiliate, al-Shabaab. Their discussions were more than just diplomatic niceties; they were rooted in the everyday struggles of the…

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…

Putin and Sassou-Nguesso: Forging Ties in the Heart of Beijing BEIJING, Sept 4 – As the echoes of a grand military parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of World War II reverberated through Beijing, two leaders positioned on opposite sides of the globe met amidst a backdrop of shifting geopolitical currents. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Denis Sassou-Nguesso, President of the Republic of Congo, convened to redefine an enduring partnership that rests on historical ties and mutual interests. “Our work with Congo is…

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…