Axadle - Leading News from Somalia and the Horn of Africa

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…

President Donald Trump proclaimed a “golden age of America” in his State of the Union address, using a record-length speech to cast his stewardship as a run of uninterrupted victories even as polls show sagging approval and voter frustration over the cost of living ahead of November’s midterm elections. Heeding warnings from Republicans anxious about losing control of Congress, Trump centered the first hour on the economy, asserting he had slowed inflation, lifted the stock market to record highs, signed sweeping tax cuts…

Police conclude search at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home after arrest linked to Epstein probe British police have concluded searches at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home in southeast England following his arrest last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, part of an ongoing investigation into his ties with the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Thames Valley Police said officers had wrapped up activity in Berkshire that began after the arrest on Thursday. “Officers have now left the location…

At least 25 people are dead and 43 remain missing after torrential rains triggered destructive floods and landslides in southeastern Brazil, where a river burst its banks and a wall of mud swept through neighborhoods overnight, authorities said Tuesday. The state of Minas Gerais bore the brunt of the disaster, with the municipality of Juiz de Fora reporting 18 deaths and 40 missing, and the nearby city of Ubá confirming seven deaths and three missing. Videos and images shared by the fire brigade showed streets turned into…