Axadle - Breaking news and analysis from Somalia, the Horn of Africa, and across Africa.

Trump’s State of the Union sparks clash with Ilhan Omar over Somali community remarks WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address erupted into a sharp confrontation Tuesday night after he accused members of Minnesota’s Somali American community of large-scale fraud, prompting Rep. Ilhan Omar to interrupt the speech from the House floor and denounce his claims as lies. Trump, speaking before a joint session of Congress, singled out Minnesota as “the most stunning example” of what he called systemic…

MOGADISHU — Hunger is surging across Somalia as four consecutive failed rainy seasons collide with steep reductions in humanitarian funding, pushing millions toward acute food insecurity, according to a new analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The report estimates 4.8 million people faced Crisis-level or worse acute food insecurity in January, with that figure projected to jump to 6.5 million between February and March — nearly double the number recorded a year ago. Aid groups say the trend…

Somalia’s NISA says weeklong raids kill more than 23 Al‑Shabaab militants in Hiiraan, Middle Shabelle MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency said Tuesday it killed more than 23 Al‑Shabaab militants during a weeklong series of operations across the Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle regions, saying the raids targeted cells preparing attacks in several districts of Hirshabelle State. NISA said the strikes, conducted in coordination with international partners, followed actionable intelligence…

British police have concluded searches at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home in southeast England after arresting the former prince last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, part of an investigation into his ties with the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Officers have now left the location we have been searching in Berkshire. This concludes the search activity that commenced following our arrest of a man in his sixties from Norfolk on Thursday,” Thames Valley Police’s Assistant Chief Constable…

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan police have arrested the country’s former intelligence chief, retired Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay, in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, authorities said. Police said Sallay, the former head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of Colombo in the most high-profile arrest to date in the long-running probe. “He was arrested for conspiracy and aiding and abetting the Easter Sunday attacks,” an…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — On a warm afternoon in the capital, 23-year-old Abdirahim Ali Mohamud Shuriye refreshed a website that did not exist a year earlier: the Somali National Job Portal. The page was stark—search bar, vacancy list, live counters of job seekers and employers—but to a recent SIMAD University graduate who had spent months chasing scattered job posts on Telegram, Facebook and WhatsApp, its simplicity felt like a breakthrough. For years, Somalis applied for work through a maze of ministry notices, radio…

Malawi launches fresh investigation into Chikangawa military plane crash that killed former Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima and eight others in June 2024, citing gaps in earlier probes. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Charles Mhango on Tuesday announced a new, comprehensive review of the Chikangawa crash after a government audit found previous inquiries did not provide clear, conclusive explanations for the accident. The minister said a government review of earlier findings — including the national…

Nigeria Denies Ransom Payments to Boko Haram for School Abductions The Nigerian government has categorically rejected claims that it paid a significant ransom to the Islamist group Boko Haram in connection to the abduction of more than 200 pupils and staff from St. Mary's School in Papiri in November 2024. Information Minister Mohammed Idris described the allegations, which emerged from a report by AFP citing unnamed intelligence sources, as "false and baseless reporting," asserting that such claims undermine the…

Donald Trump’s State of the Union address ran long but felt tightly controlled, the work of a president who understands television and the power of staging. It was a carefully sequenced production that blended valor, grievance and a handful of policy points into a split-screen test of political identities in an election year. The speech returned Trump to familiar ground: the economy, tariffs, immigration and cultural combat. In front of a silent Democratic caucus and a Supreme Court he rebuked from a few feet away, the…

Mogadishu — Somalia’s federal government accused opposition figures on Tuesday of derailing high-stakes political talks in the capital by abandoning an agreed agenda, intensifying a standoff over elections and constitutional reforms as the United Nations urged both sides back to the table. In a statement, the government said the consultation process—launched in March 2025 to collect views from former leaders, politicians, academics and civil society—remains the vehicle to resolve what it called the country’s “fateful…