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

Sunday April 5, 2026 Baidoa (AX) — Somali National Army commander on Friday rewarded soldiers who took part in the operation that reopened the key Mogadishu–Baidoa road, calling the campaign a serious setback for al-Shabab and a breakthrough for the movement of civilians. Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Mohamed Mahmoud praised the troops for helping secure the corridor, which militants affiliated with al-Qaida have intermittently blocked since 2009. “I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart,” the commander said. “As far as I am…

A high-stakes American rescue mission deep inside Iran has recovered an airman from behind enemy lines after Tehran shot down a fighter jet, officials said today, easing an immediate political and military test for US President Donald Trump as he considers widening a war now in its sixth week. The rescued airman, whom Mr Trump identified as a colonel, was the weapons-systems officer aboard the downed F-15, a US official said. "Over the past several hours, the United States military pulled off one of the most daring search…

Sunday April 5, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia and Sudan have reached an agreement to waive visa requirements for diplomatic passport holders, a development both governments say will help deepen ties and make official travel easier. The accord was signed on April 2 at the second meeting of the Somalia-Sudan Political Consultation Committee. The session was jointly led by Hamza Adan Haadow, permanent secretary at Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Ambassador Muawiya Osman Khalid,…

U.S. Revamps Strategy for Global Medical Supply Distribution The United States is transforming its approach to delivering critical medical supplies to economically disadvantaged countries, a change that experts caution might affect millions reliant on treatments for HIV and malaria. For nearly ten years, the U.S. depended on the Global Health Supply Chain Program, managed by contractor Chemonics, to distribute essential medications and preventive measures across developing regions. From 2016 to 2024, this initiative…

Sunday April 5, 2026 FILE PHOTO: Somalia has been making gains against the al Shabab terrorist group. / AA Somali intelligence forces, working alongside international troops, killed at least nine Al Shabab terrorists in a शनिवार operation in the southern Lower Shabelle region, among them specialists linked to bomb-making, authorities said. The raid also destroyed six heavy engines used by the militant group to produce explosives, the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said in a statement. NISA identified two of…

For Europe, the week brought back an unwelcome memory: the kind of creeping economic dread last seen when Covid-19 tore through the continent and pushed its economies to the brink in 2020 and 2021. "If this war escalates into a major regional conflict," Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a Berlin news conference on Monday, "it could burden Germany and Europe even more than we experienced most recently during the Covid-19 pandemic or at the beginning of the war in Ukraine." Those two crises still loom large in EU capitals,…

Esra TekinSunday April 5, 2026 President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States had carried out the rescue of a military officer, identified as a colonel, in what he described as "one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US history." In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the officer had been stranded behind enemy lines in Iran’s mountainous region and was being chased by hostile forces before he was brought out safely in a major military mission involving dozens of aircraft. Noting that the officer…

Easter Sunday will carry unusual weight at the Vatican this year, as Pope Leo XIV prepares to mark the holiest day in the Christian calendar for the first time as pontiff while war in the Middle East darkens the celebration. The US-born pope, who has become one of the conflict’s most prominent critics, is due to celebrate mass in St Peter's Square from 9.30am Irish time before thousands of worshippers. The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics will then deliver the traditional blessing at 11am Irish time, a moment likely…

Somalia’s federal parliament has been at the center of major political decisions in 2026, as lawmakers debated constitutional rules, the timetable for elections, and the government’s spending priorities. The actions taken in parliamentary sessions—sometimes orderly, sometimes marked by unrest—shape how political power is set to change later in the year. With Somalia still working under a provisional constitutional framework and facing ongoing security and governance challenges, parliamentary votes in Mogadishu carry…

Saturday April 4, 2026 Media representatives gather in front of a heavily damaged building following a strike at the Azadi Sport Complex in Tehran Iranian forces say they have shot down two US military fighter jets, one over the country’s southwest and another in the area of the Strait of Hormuz, in a sharp escalation of the conflict. In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said air defences had “completely destroyed” an F-15 aircraft. Later the same day, the Iranian…