Wednesday June 10, 2026 Istanbul (AX) — What was meant to be a landmark moment for Somali football ended in disappointment on Tuesday, when referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan returned to Somalia after being barred from entering the United States and missing out on what would have been a historic World Cup assignment. Artan traveled back from Istanbul, where U.S. border officials had sent him after refusing him entry at Miami International Airport over the weekend. In Mogadishu, preparations were under way to receive him home.…

Gunfire in Mogadishu has done what weeks of warnings could not: it has laid bare the hard political truth that Somalia’s election disputes cannot be settled by force alone. For months, federal member states, opposition figures and other influential political actors had urged caution as efforts moved ahead around an electoral model that never won nationwide consensus. Their message was consistent. In Somalia’s still-fragile political order, negotiation and agreement matter more than the reach of state institutions acting on…

Wednesday June 3, 2026 President William Ruto has ended his three-day tour of Northern Kenya with a renewed promise to direct more development funds to a region he says has been left behind for too long. He argued that Kenya can only unlock the area’s huge untapped potential if the North is fully woven into the national development blueprint. “Northern Kenya is not peripheral; it is central to the development of Kenya,” he said on Tuesday at Maalimin in Lagdera Constituency, Garissa County. He added: “I am on a mission to…

Saturday May 9, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has urged the country’s leaders to use the final days of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s term to build an inclusive electoral process that all political stakeholders can accept, warning that failure to do so could deepen instability. In remarks on Friday, Farmaajo said Friday, May 15, 2026, will mark the end of President Hassan Sheikh’s constitutional term, and he emphasized that Somalia now needs broad agreement on the path ahead for…

A dramatic hostage ordeal at a bank in western Germany ended with a special police unit freeing two people from a vault unharmed, but the suspects had already vanished and remained at large, police said. When officers moved into the branch in Sinzig, they found no trace of the attackers, according to police. Investigators now believe that "immediately after locking the individuals in the vault, the perpetrator or perpetrators left the scene by means as yet unknown", authorities said in a statement. The incident began at…

MOGADISHU, May 8 - Former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo on Friday urged President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to put in place an inclusive electoral framework before his term expires next week, saying failure to reach consensus could deepen instability in the country. The appeal lands against the backdrop of an intensifying political standoff in the Horn of Africa nation, where the opposition and the federal government remain split over election procedures and proposed constitutional changes as the May 15 deadline…

Joseph Gedeon in WashingtonTuesday April 21, 2026 Representatives from more than a dozen foreign diplomatic missions, United Nations offices, and the media view damage at sites previously targeted by US-Israeli strikes, on 20 April 2026 in Tehran, Iran. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images Donald Trump signaled on Tuesday that he expects the US to resume bombing Iran, even as a delicate 14-day ceasefire heads toward its Wednesday deadline with no agreement in place. “I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better…

Friday April 17, 2026 Garowe (AX) — Puntland State’s Cabinet has called on President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to work toward a broad political settlement on Somalia’s elections, warning that a prolonged standoff could deepen the country’s instability. The appeal came after a Cabinet session chaired by Puntland State President Said Abdullahi Deni, during which ministers examined the national political climate following the official expiration of the federal parliament’s four-year mandate on April 14, 2026. “The Council calls on…

Wednesday April 15, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo on Tuesday sounded the alarm over what he called a dangerous political turning point for Somalia after the federal parliament’s mandate expired. Farmaajo said the Federal Parliament’s term officially came to an end on April 14, 2026, under the Provisional Constitution, leaving the country without a newly elected legislature in place. “The end of parliament’s mandate without the formation of a new parliament could create legal and…

Wednesday April 15, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s opposition Himilo Qaran party on Tuesday raised alarm over the country’s political and constitutional direction after the federal parliament’s term expired. In a statement, the party said the House of the People’s mandate officially ended on April 14, 2026, in line with Article 60 of the Provisional Constitution, describing the date as a defining test for governance and respect for the rule of law. “Protecting the term limits of government institutions is the most…