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Analysis: Pakistan’s Saudi defense pact faces its first major test as Iran-Israel war engulfs the Gulf ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 and Tehran’s retaliation with missiles and drones — not only at Israel but at six Gulf countries — have thrust Pakistan into the most precarious regional crisis it has faced in years. Bound to Saudi Arabia by a new mutual defense pact, tied to Iran by geography and a tense but necessary relationship,…

Saturday March 7, 2026 Arusha — Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrived in Arusha on Saturday to attend the 25th Annual Summit of the East African Community, a high-level gathering focused on advancing economic integration, security cooperation and political coordination across the region. The visit signals Somalia’s deepening engagement with the regional bloc as it seeks to consolidate post-conflict gains and broaden economic and diplomatic ties. The summit brings together heads of state and senior officials from EAC…

Somalia adopts revised constitution; President Mohamud hails ‘historic achievement’ amid opposition boycott MOGADISHU, Somalia — President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday hosted an iftar dinner for members of both houses of parliament, praising lawmakers for approving Somalia’s revised constitution after months of heated debate and years of stalled review. The gathering at a Mogadishu hotel came a day after a joint sitting of the House of the People and the Upper House voted to adopt amendments that complete a…

Mogadishu’s constitutional limbo has defined Somalia’s federal transition for more than a decade. With the adoption of Article 63 in the amended constitution, lawmakers have drawn a new map for the capital and the wider Benadir Region—one that elevates local representation while keeping national authorities firmly in charge of security and other strategic levers. It is a hybrid that resists easy labels, neither a full Federal Member State nor a city simply run from the center. The decision settles years of debate over…

Iran–Israel war redraws the Horn of Africa’s security map The joint United States–Israeli strikes on Iran last week, which killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of senior security officials, have vaulted the Middle East into a wider war with immediate spillover risks for the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. Iran has hit Israel and several Arab states that host U.S. military facilities — the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Jordan — while Hezbollah’s barrage from Lebanon…

‘No school, no food’: Drought pushes Bay region children out of class and into Baidoa’s camps BAIDOA, Somalia — At night in a camp on the edge of this bustling regional capital, Hassan Isaq Sabri counts his children as they file into borrowed huts to sleep. The adults bed down outside. By morning, he will borrow 20 liters of water from neighbors and begin the daylong search for a meal — and for a way to keep his four school-age children from slipping further behind. “My children had a good education before,” said Hassan, 55,…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia has begun enforcing a new rule that requires passengers to present a national identity card for all domestic flights, a move officials say will tighten security and modernize how the country oversees internal air travel. The Somali Immigration and Citizenship Authority said the measure took effect March 1 following a two-month postponement intended to give citizens more time to register for the national ID. The policy was originally slated for Jan. 1, 2026. Mustafa Sheikh Ahmed Dhuxulow, the…

ST. CLOUD, Minnesota — When Abdi Daisane first resettled in the United States in 2009, he called family overseas to describe a freedom that felt radical after years in a Kenyan refugee camp: no one demanded to see his papers. In Minnesota, he didn’t live at a checkpoint. Seventeen years later, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surged into Minnesota in recent months, that assurance unraveled. Daisane, who owns Blooming Kids Child Center in St. Cloud and is running for an open state House seat, found himself…

KISMAYO, Somalia — Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe has invited federal lawmakers from his state to a consultative meeting in Kismayo as political tensions mount over Somalia’s electoral process ahead of the 2026 vote. In a letter dated March 1, 2026, Madobe’s office called on members of both houses of the federal Parliament who represent Jubaland constituencies to convene for discussions on the national political situation and preparations for the coming elections. The outreach comes amid intensifying…

A digital lifeline for Somalia’s children: Inside Mogadishu’s experiment with an electronic immunization register On a bright morning in Kahda, a district on the southern edge of Mogadishu, a young mother stands at the immunization desk without the small, creased card that once governed her child’s medical future. For years, that paper card—easily misplaced during eviction, flood or displacement—was the only proof a child had been vaccinated. When it disappeared, health workers guessed which doses had been given, repeated…