Somalia

Suicide Blast and Gunfire Rock Mogadishu’s Most Secure Prison, Hours After Government Claims Citywide Gains Mogadishu — A bold and deadly assault hit one of Somalia’s most fortified sites on Saturday afternoon, when suspected al-Shabaab militants stormed Godka Jilacow, the high-security prison run by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). The attack began with a suicide bombing at the facility’s perimeter, followed by sustained gunfire as security forces fought to secure the compound. Initial reports…

Rulings in London give seven Kenyans proof of paternity against British soldiers — and raise bigger questions In a London family court this week, seven Kenyans secured legal confirmation that British men fathered them — a finding that may seem narrowly personal but reverberates far beyond individual lives. The decisions, brought after years of searching and aided by DNA matches from publicly available genetic databases, create a pathway for the claimants to seek British citizenship and place renewed focus on the…

Somali, Ugandan forces take Awdheegle in fresh push against al‑Shabaab Somali troops backed by Ugandan peacekeepers say they have seized control of Awdheegle, a strategic farming town on the Shabelle River about 80 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu, in the latest phase of a stepped-up offensive against al‑Shabaab. The Ministry of Defense announced Saturday that the capture is a milestone in “Silent Storm,” a multi‑stage campaign to dismantle the militant group’s foothold across southern Somalia. In the hours after the…

Djibouti’s new troop deployment highlights a widening fault line in Somalia’s fragile stabilisation Djibouti’s announcement that it will send additional troops to Somalia is a small but telling development in a long-running struggle that has consumed the Horn of Africa for more than a decade. The move — formalised in a new bilateral agreement with Mogadishu and presented at the United Nations by Djibouti’s envoy Mohamed Siad Doualeh — is aimed at bolstering the African Union-led stabilisation effort against the Islamist…

Somali Activist Omar Jamal Freed From ICE Custody in Minnesota, Says He’s Confident He Won’t Be Deported MINNEAPOLIS — Somali community advocate Omar Jamal walked out of a southern Minnesota jail this week after a month in federal custody and used his first public appearance to do something unusual in a high-stakes immigration case: praise the jail that held him. “What I have seen is people doing their job with professionalism in a humane way,” Jamal told reporters in Albert Lea, standing beside Freeborn County Sheriff…

Somalia’s fragile human-rights transition meets a test on press freedom GENEVA — In a packed room at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Somali and British officials yesterday set out an upbeat case that Somalia is inching toward stronger national institutions. But the event’s most urgent testimony came from civil society: a warning that progress on paper is being undermined by a resurgent and more sophisticated campaign to silence journalists. The UK and Somalia jointly hosted the side event during the council’s 60th…

Somali Politics Spill Into Nairobi Again — And Mogadishu Pushes Back It is a familiar scene in East African diplomacy: Somali politicians gathering in a Nairobi hotel to hash out the country’s future far from Mogadishu’s checkpoints and political heat. This week, that well-worn script met a forceful rebuttal from Somalia’s defense minister, who said enough is enough. In a sharply worded post, Defense Minister Ahmed Macallin Fiqi condemned a Nairobi meeting of opposition figures and regional leaders — among them Puntland…

STOCKHOLM — What price is paid to enforce a border? For Sweden, it may be 100 million kronor (about $9 million), carefully rechanneled through development aid — a familiar tool repurposed for an increasingly unforgiving migration policy. The revelation, first reported by Sweden’s national broadcaster Ekot, paints a quiet but potent picture of diplomacy in 2025: transactional, strategic, and threaded with compromise. The Swedish government, under its new Minister for International Development Cooperation, Benjamin Dousa…

Somali opposition forms “Somalia Future Council” as political clock ticks In a conciliatory — and potentially combustible — move, prominent Somali leaders gathered in Nairobi this week to unveil a new opposition coalition they call the “Somalia Future Council.” Brought together by regional heavyweights and veteran national figures, the alliance aims to shape the country’s fraught political transition as President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term edges toward its final months. Who’s in the room matters The coalition combines…

Somalia’s Skies Welcome a New Captain — and a Revival of Possibility At dawn in Mogadishu, when the ocean breeze carries the call to prayer over the runway and the heat hasn’t yet settled on the tarmac, a young captain strides toward her aircraft with the calm of routine and the knowledge that nothing about this is ordinary. Headset in hand, checklist tucked under her arm, Captain Yasmin Abdi Farah powers up the cockpit of a Maandeeq Air jet bound for Nairobi. A familiar route, yes—but the story it tells is new. Yasmin,…