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

Lori Chavez-DeRemer is set to step down as US secretary of labour, the White House said, ending a turbulent tenure overshadowed by scandal and complaints about how young female staff members were treated. Her departure follows weeks of mounting questions over her future and comes on the heels of the exits of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Taken together, the departures have underscored the rapid turnover among women in Mr Trump's cabinet in recent weeks. "Labor Secretary…

Rebuilding Gaza will cost an estimated $71bn, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, underscoring the scale of the destruction as European leaders weigh both aid and pressure on Israel. Speaking in Brussels during a series of meetings focused on the Palestinian issue, Ms Kallas said the estimate had been developed after months of talks with the World Bank and the United Nations. The EU is bringing together countries that have committed to backing a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, alongside a donor…

The military government has escalated its crackdown on civil society, recently dissolving 118 organizations, with many focusing on human rights advocacy. The authorities have invoked a law regarding freedom of association enacted in July 2025, yet they have provided little justification beyond ambiguous claims of noncompliance. This latest move is part of a larger pattern of repression that emerged following the military coup in September 2022. Since that takeover, the regime has systematically targeted non-governmental…

Somalia’s press came under relentless pressure in 2025, with a new report from the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) detailing 72 violations of media freedom over the course of the year and describing an environment in which journalists are routinely targeted while perpetrators remain untouched. The union said the pattern of abuse, from arrests to violence, shows repression of journalism is not only continuing but deeply rooted. According to the State of the Media Report, 70 of the cases involved individual…

Tuesday April 21, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s constitutional watchdog has moved to force a long-simmering political question into the open, telling cabinet ministers who also sit in parliament that they must give up one of their posts. In a statement released Monday, the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission (ICRIC) said the instruction is grounded in the new federal constitution, which requires a strict separation between the executive and legislative branches. According to the commission, no…

More than 200 civilians held by an armed group tied to the Islamic State in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been freed in a joint military operation, officials said, marking one of the largest recent rescues in the volatile region. Ugandan forces, operating alongside the Congolese army, struck a camp run by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militant organization that originated in Uganda. The Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) said the raid targeted the ADF, a Ugandan group active in eastern Congo…

Cynthia Shange, celebrated as the first Black woman to represent South Africa at Miss World during the apartheid era, has died at 76. Her daughter, Nonhle Thema, confirmed her passing and honored Shange’s enduring compassion and influence. Shange became a household name in the 1970s when she took the Miss World stage for South Africa. Under apartheid, Black women were barred from entering Miss South Africa and instead built their own platforms through parallel pageants. Shange captured one of those crowns, winning Miss…

Japan warned of a heightened threat of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake or stronger after a powerful offshore jolt struck the country’s north, sending authorities scrambling to issue a tsunami alert. In a statement, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that "the likelihood of a new, huge earthquake occurring is relatively higher than during normal times". The advisory for the northern region was issued hours after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit the area, shaking high-rise buildings in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometres from the…

Tuesday April 21, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia has entered into a cooperation agreement with China aimed at broadening the use of satellite technology in national development, a move that signals the country’s growing ambitions in the fields of space and data systems. The memorandum of understanding was signed at the NewSpace Africa Conference 2026 in Libreville by Somalia’s Department of Space and Satellite, which operates under the Ministry of Communications and Technology, and China’s Land Satellite Remote Sensing…

With a fragile ceasefire nearing its deadline, Washington and Tehran traded fresh warnings of war, casting doubt over whether negotiations that US President Donald Trump said would resume in Pakistan will go ahead at all. The White House said Vice President JD Vance stood ready to return to Islamabad, where Pakistani authorities were preparing for a second round of talks aimed at halting a conflict that has engulfed the Middle East and rattled global markets. Tehran, however, stopped short of confirming its participation.…