Somalia

North Western State of Somalia police warn against attacks on Ethiopian migrants after Hargeisa incident Hargeisa, North Western State of Somalia — Police in the North Western State of Somalia capital moved quickly on Saturday to warn would-be vigilantes that anyone who harms Ethiopian nationals will be prosecuted after a group of youths attacked Ethiopian migrants in the city. Authorities said no serious injuries were reported, but the incident has unsettled a city that prides itself on order and relative calm. What…

Kenyan Governor Demands Pullout of Jubaland Troops From Mandera, Citing Threat to Sovereignty NAIROBI — Tension along Kenya’s northeastern frontier flared Friday as Mandera Governor Mohamed Adan Khalif accused Somalia’s Jubaland forces of setting up inside Mandera Town and demanded their immediate withdrawal, warning that the incursion endangered residents and tested Kenya’s sovereignty. Speaking at a public gathering in the border county where Kenya meets both Somalia and Ethiopia, Khalif said a group of Jubaland fighters…

Court Ruling Keeps Epping Hotel’s Asylum Seekers Housed as Protests Flare and Fear Sets In A Court of Appeal decision allowing 138 asylum seekers to remain at the Bell Hotel in Epping has intensified a volatile standoff on the edge of London’s commuter belt, where protests have turned hostile and residents inside the building say they are too afraid to step outside. The ruling, handed down Friday, overturned a High Court order that would have forced the group to leave by September 12. The judges sided with the Home Office…

Opinion | Mogadishu’s New Port Terminal Is a Bet on Trade, Trust, and a Different Future The cranes at Mogadishu’s seafront swung into motion this week with a confidence that felt new. Somalia inaugurated a modern container terminal—lifting capacity from roughly 150,000 to 250,000 twenty-foot equivalent units—and launched work on a new harbor headquarters to tighten management. For a city where the port once evoked images of conflict and relief shipments, the sight of fresh steel and bright paint is its own kind of…

Qalanjo, the Star Who Gave Somalia Its Soundtrack, Dies in Hargeisa She walked onto the stage with a dancer’s grace and a singer’s certainty, a silk scarf sweeping like a banner. In the 1970s and ’80s—when Somali theaters were full and radios hummed in every teashop—Khadijo Mohamud Yusuf, known to her country simply as Qalanjo, helped give Somalia its soundtrack. The Ministry of Information confirmed she died on August 29 in Hargeisa, calling her passing a profound loss to Somali culture. She was among the first women to…

In Mogadishu, tiny hearts get a second chance — and a health system finds its stride For three intense days in late August, the corridors of Guuleed Specialist Hospital in Mogadishu pulsed with a rare kind of urgency. A volunteer team of cardiac specialists from Somalia and abroad scrubbed in, monitors beeped in careful rhythm, and anxious families clutched prayer beads as their children—some no bigger than a bag of rice—were wheeled into operating theaters. By the evening of August 27, organizers said 15 children with…

Prominent Somali American advocate detained by ICE in Minneapolis, unsettling a community he helped build MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Omar Jamal, one of Minnesota’s most visible Somali American civic voices, in downtown Minneapolis on Friday, federal officials and his attorney confirmed. He was later transferred to the Freeborn County jail in Albert Lea, a facility that holds federal immigration detainees. What we know Jamal, 52, was taken into custody by ICE on Friday…

At Least 70 Dead in West Africa Migrant Boat Disaster; Dozens More Feared Missing Off Mauritania A migrant boat attempting the Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Europe capsized off Mauritania, killing at least 70 people and leaving many more missing, Gambia’s foreign affairs ministry said late Friday. The vessel, believed to have departed the Gambia and carrying mostly Gambian and Senegalese nationals, sank early Wednesday. Mauritanian authorities recovered 70 bodies by Thursday, and only 16 survivors were pulled from…

Firdhiye Wins Leadership of Somalia’s New Northeastern State in Las Anod Vote Amid Allegations of Federal Interference How the vote unfolded Las Anod, a city that has lived at the edge of maps and the center of Somalia’s political crosswinds, delivered a decisive vote on Saturday. Abdikadir Ahmed Ali Firdhiye, a former interim leader of the territory known locally as SSC-Khatumo, was elected president of the newly formed Northeastern state after a tense and closely watched contest. The ballot shifted dramatically between…

Kenya’s new army chief tours volatile northeast as al‑Shabaab tests the border NAIROBI — Kenya’s new army commander, Lt. Gen. David Ketter, has made his first inspection swing through the country’s northeastern frontier, a scrubland expanse where the line between Kenya and Somalia blurs and al‑Shabaab’s shadow lingers. His tour of forward operating bases in Marsabit, Wajir, Mandera, and Garissa was part morale boost, part fact-finding — and a clear signal that Nairobi wants to steady the front at a time of shifting dynamics…