Axadle - Leading News from Somalia and the Horn of Africa

NATO is reviewing the United States’s plan to pull roughly 5,000 troops out of Germany, as friction over the war in Iran deepens between Washington and its European allies. In a statement on Saturday, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance is “working with the US to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany”, with the Pentagon saying the process is expected to take six to 12 months. The proposed reduction lands against a backdrop of sharpened tensions between US President Donald Trump and…

By: OMAR M ELMI, EconomistSaturday May 2, 2026 North Western State of Somalia sits on one of the world’s most sensitive maritime corridors, along Somalia’s Gulf of Aden coast where the Bab el-Mandeb strait opens into the Red Sea. | Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images As tensions mount across the Red Sea, North Western State of Somalia is nearing a turning point that could reshape not only its diplomatic ambitions but also its security outlook. For more than 30 years, the self-declared republic has pressed for international…

Phil Hogan’s campaign to lead the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation is running into stiff resistance at a pivotal moment. Ireland’s former EU commissioner is still regarded in Brussels as the standout contender to become the first European to serve as director-general of the Rome-based agency in half a century. But efforts to unite the bloc behind one name have been slowed by determined rival candidacies from Italy and Spain. If no common nominee emerges, Europe again risks splitting its vote when 193 UN member states…

ADEN, Yemen — An oil tanker has been seized by armed men off Yemen’s southern coast and diverted toward Somali waters, Yemeni authorities said Saturday, in an incident that points to a renewed stretch of piracy at sea. The vessel, identified as M/T EUREKA, was taken near Shabwa province, according to Yemen’s coast guard. Officials said unidentified gunmen boarded the tanker while it was passing through the area and assumed control of the ship. The tanker was then steered into the Gulf of Aden and appeared to be moving toward…

Saturday May 2, 2026 Britain’s Metropolitan Police have charged a man with attempted murder after two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, in north London, an attack that has intensified concern over rising threats to the Jewish community. The stabbings in a residential part of the capital on Wednesday prompted officials to raise the national terrorism threat level to its second-highest setting, a move that signals an attack within the next six months is considered “highly likely”. This week, Prime Minister Keir…

A desperate rescue effort that many had written off has ended with a humpback whale back in open water, after the animal was ferried by barge from near the German coast and released into the North Sea off Denmark. The whale, nicknamed "Timmy" in Germany as its struggle gripped the public and triggered intense media attention, slipped out of the barge, blasted air through its blowhole and swam away, according to Karin Walter-Mommert, one of the wealthy entrepreneurs who bankrolled the operation. She said the whale was moving…

MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has called on Iran to stop meddling in Bahrain and the wider Gulf, issuing a blunt warning after weeks of escalating military tension in the region. In remarks published by the state-run Bahrain News Agency, the king condemned the recent strikes as “heinous aggression” that he said was aimed squarely at the safety and stability of the Bahraini people. He added that the strain the kingdom has endured had “exposed many faces” that had previously concealed their real…

Saturday May 2, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somali pilgrims have begun their journey to the holy sites as the first Hajj flights from Mogadishu and Hargeisa touched down in Saudi Arabia, signaling the opening of this year’s pilgrimage season for nationals from the Horn of Africa. According to Somali officials, the initial flights arrived Friday at Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport with 432 pilgrims on board. Minister of Endowment and Religious Affairs Mukhtar Robow Ali oversaw the launch ceremony in Mogadishu,…

Ireland’s Taoiseach has denounced the Israeli military’s interception of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters earlier this week, calling the operation unacceptable. Speaking in Athlone, Micheál Martin said the incident could not go unanswered. "I want to condemn the seizure of the flotilla in what appears to be international waters, it's not acceptable. "I think the international community have to call it out and we will be raising it at European level. It is understood that seven Irish citizens, among the 175…

Iran put two men to death on Saturday after convicting them of spying for Israel, according to the judiciary, marking the latest in a series of executions carried out in recent weeks.  "Yaghoub Karimpour and Nasser Bekrzadeh were hanged for the crime of intelligence cooperation and espionage in favor of the Zionist regime," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said. It was not immediately clear when the two men were arrested. Mizan said Karimpour was convicted of the capital offence of "moharebeh," or waging war against God,…