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

Boeing said China agreed to buy 200 aircraft during US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, marking a breakthrough for the aerospace manufacturer in a deal that could eventually expand to include orders for another 750 jets. "We achieved our main objective of reopening the China market to orders for Boeing aircraft during a highly successful trip to China," the company said in a statement. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg joined the US delegation to China. "That included an initial commitment for 200 aircraft, and we expect…

MOGADISHU, Somalia, May 16 — The United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia on Friday pressed Somalia’s federal government and opposition leaders to keep talking and settle on an inclusive electoral model after negotiations in Mogadishu ended without agreement on the main points of contention. The mission said it welcomed the restart of discussions held from May 13 to 15 and recognized the role of international partners in backing the process, but said it was disappointed the meetings failed to produce a…

Saturday May 16, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — The United Nations mission in Somalia has welcomed the return of talks among Somali political leaders, while warning that the latest round of negotiations failed to settle the core disputes surrounding the country’s political transition. The United Nations Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia UNTMIS said Saturday that discussions held from May 13 to 15 marked an important step forward and commended the international partners who backed the effort. “It is regrettable, however,…

A devastating Russian missile-and-drone barrage on Kyiv has killed at least 24 people, Ukrainian emergency officials said today, dealing another blow to already-fading hopes that Moscow’s long war might soon ease. Air raid sirens echoed across the capital yesterday, and hours of explosions and flashes overhead drove residents into metro stations and other shelters. According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia launched 675 attack drones and 56 missiles, with Kyiv as the main target. It said air defence forces intercepted 652…

MOGADISHU, May 16 - Somalia’s political crisis deepened on Saturday as term-ended President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met Turkey’s ambassador just hours after talks collapsed over the question of his expired mandate, a move viewed by some as an effort to show he still commands international support. The meeting at the Villa Somalia presidential palace with Ambassador Alper Aktaş followed a failed attempt by opposition leaders and regional states to reach common ground at the UN-protected Halane compound on Mohamud’s tenure,…

By  JACK DENTON and OMAR FARUKSaturday May 16, 2026 Abdi Ahmed Farah has watched nearly all of his hundreds of goats die, a loss that would have seemed unimaginable in the Somali countryside where he has spent his life. For three straight years, rain has failed to arrive with any regularity in this corner of Somalia, and the 70-year-old says he has never known conditions this harsh. He is already in debt after buying water. The reservoir beside his tent is almost dry. His family now survives on one meal a day — rice mixed…

Saturday May 16, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia is edging back toward famine as drought, soaring food and fuel costs and severe cuts to humanitarian funding leave more than 6 million people facing acute hunger, Oxfam has warned. Fresh data from the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification shows that nearly one in three Somalis is now living with crisis-level hunger or worse, or IPC Phase 3 and above. Within that group, nearly 1.9 million people are already in emergency food insecurity, just one step short of…

A sweeping political declaration endorsed by 46 member states of the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based human rights body, could shape the way judges approach some of Europe’s most contested migration cases. Ireland is among the countries to back the declaration, which zeroes in on the deportation of criminals and the handling of asylum claims. It says that while migrants’ fundamental rights and freedoms “must be respected and protected in accordance with the principle of non-discrimination”, national governments retain…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s relations with some of its neighbors are fraying, with several regional governments now scaling back their diplomatic engagement and increasingly viewing the federal authorities in Mogadishu as an administration whose mandate has lapsed and whose political legitimacy remains in dispute, according to regional officials and diplomatic sources. The tension is unfolding against a backdrop of mounting political deadlock in Somalia, where delayed elections and a failure by the federal government and…

By: Abdirahman Jeylani Mohamed Saturday May 16, 2026 Somalia has reached a fraught political milestone. On 15 May 2026, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s constitutional mandate formally expired, landing the country in one of its most precarious moments in recent memory. The date carries heavy symbolism. It coincides with Somali Youth Day, a commemoration of the generation behind the Somali Youth League (SYL), which once imagined a united, democratic and sovereign Somali republic built on civic nationalism rather than…