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

Fresh hopes for diplomacy emerged on Monday as the United States and Iran appeared poised to return to Islamabad for another round of talks aimed at ending the war, sources told Reuters, even after weekend negotiations collapsed and Washington responded by imposing a blockade on Iranian ports. Tehran denounced the US move in fierce terms, but the prospect that back-channel efforts were still alive helped steady oil markets, sending benchmark crude back below $100 a barrel. The weekend meeting in Pakistan's capital — the…

By Khadar AfrahTuesday April 14, 2026 For years, Somalia’s opposition has made its presence felt from Mogadishu statements and Nairobi hotel corridors, while Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has worked from Villa Somalia to stretch his authority, centralize power, and treat the federal arrangement as something still under construction. At some point, political opposition has to move beyond speeches and into strategy. In South West State, it did not. Federal troops moved into Baidoa, forced President Abdiaziz Laftagareen from office…

By: Eng. Jama Farah Noor Tuesday April 14, 2026 Somalia stands at a dangerous crossroads, and the stakes could hardly be higher. An election process shaped by the incumbent leadership, rather than by broad agreement, risks not only weakening democracy but also igniting serious violence and pushing the country back toward civil war. In place of the current orchestrated election model advanced by the President and his team — a model that appears driven by narrow political interests and lacks the participation of key…

Sudan marked a grim milestone on Wednesday, commemorating three years since the onset of its civil war. This protracted conflict has spiraled into relentless violence, claiming the lives of tens of thousands and displacing over 11 million individuals. The turmoil erupted on April 15, 2023, initially as a clash between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). As it enters its fourth year, the United Nations deems it the "world's largest humanitarian crisis." A disturbing hallmark of the conflict's…

A widening feud between US President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV has erupted into a deeply unusual political and spiritual clash, one that could carry real consequences for the Republican leader as November’s pivotal US mid-term elections draw closer. Mr Trump has come under fire, including from some of his own allies, after lashing out at the US-born pontiff, who has condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, its intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The dispute threatens to unsettle the religious…

By Omar M. ElmiTuesday April 14, 2026 With President Ismail Omar Guelleh having secured 97.81% of the vote on April 10 and preparing to enter a sixth term, Djibouti again finds itself in a familiar but uneasy position: politically tight, economically fragile, and strategically impossible to ignore. In this small state on the Horn of Africa, power is measured not only in votes, but in geography, military rents, and the ability to keep rival interests in delicate balance. Few countries have leveraged their location as…

A prolonged US blockade of one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints threatens to send fresh shocks through energy markets and supply chains, raising new risks and costs for economies far beyond the Gulf. By Sanjoy Paul, University of Technology Sydney For weeks, the global economy has been fixated on a single question: when will the Strait of Hormuz fully reopen? Following Iran’s war with Israel and the United States, Tehran has in effect shut the narrow passage, a route that normally carries about one-fifth of…

By: Prof. Abdinasir Ali OsmanTuesday April 14, 2026 A Condensed Investigative and Forward-Looking Policy Analysis of Curad-1 and Somalia’s Offshore Future Somalia’s offshore oil frontier has quickly become one of the Horn of Africa’s most closely watched energy stories. In a region where maritime security, foreign investment, and state-building often collide, the Curad-1 drilling program has pushed Somalia from theory into action. This condensed investigative analysis draws on international reporting, institutional…

With a key Russian oil route still crippled by wartime strikes, Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine expects to restore enough of the damaged pipeline to resume operations to Hungary and Slovakia before April is out. "As for the oil pipeline, as we promised, it will be repaired by the end of April - not completely, but enough for it to function," Mr Zelensky told reporters in Berlin. The pipeline’s condition had become a flashpoint in Mr Zelensky’s fraught relationship with Hungary's outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the…

Tuesday April 14, 2026 Displaced families grapple with food, water shortages/File Photo/Ergo Pastoralist families uprooted by drought in southern Somalia’s Lower Juba region have reached Kulbiyow, a small border town near Kenya, stripped of their livestock, shelter and dependable access to food. They left behind rural settlements around Buulo-Haaji, near Kismayo, after months of severe drought depleted water points, killed animals and shattered the livelihoods that sustained them. Among those now struggling in Kulbiyow is…