West Africa

Somalia sets Sept. 9 restart for voter registration in push toward one-person, one-vote Somalia’s electoral clock will start ticking again next week. The country’s Independent National Electoral and Boundaries Commission announced Saturday that voter registration for long-promised one-person, one-vote elections will resume on Sept. 9 and run through Sept. 30 — a narrow window with outsized stakes for a nation attempting to exit decades of indirect, clan-based politics. What’s new Commission Chairman Abdikarin Ahmed Hassan…

Kenyan man indicted in U.S. child-nutrition fraud probe as investigators trace money to Nairobi real estate

Egypt’s Troops Prepare to Join Somalia Mission, Recasting the Horn’s Security Equation The Egyptian flag will soon fly alongside others on the front lines of Somalia’s long war with al-Shabab. After a week of site visits and quiet consultations in Mogadishu, an Egyptian military team has wrapped up an assessment that clears the way for Cairo’s first troop deployment to the African Union Support Mission in Somalia, or AUSSOM. On paper, it’s a straightforward move—one more nation committing forces to an African Union effort…

Arrest of Puntland State Football Figure Deepens Rift in Somali Soccer Puntland State’s already fraught football politics spilled into public view on Saturday when security forces detained Mohamed Ali Isse, widely known as Ciiro, at Garowe’s airport as he prepared to board a flight out of the city. Authorities have not announced charges or publicly explained the arrest. Local outlets and football insiders say it may be tied to a leadership struggle inside the Puntland State Football Association, or to alleged political links…

Somalia says 12 al-Shabaab fighters killed in Galguduud raid as forces press pursuit toward El-Buur Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency said Friday it killed at least 12 al-Shabaab fighters, including what it described as senior figures, during a raid on a militant training site in the country’s central Galguduud region. The operation, conducted with unspecified international partners, also wounded 13 others and sent surviving militants fleeing toward the El-Buur district, according to the agency. What…

Egypt prepares to join new African Union mission in Somalia after six-day assessment What happened In Mogadishu, on a humid Friday where the sea breeze barely cuts the dust, the African Union’s top envoy in Somalia closed the door on a week of quiet but significant diplomacy. Ambassador El Hadji Ibrahima Diene, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and head of the AU Support Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), met an Egyptian military team at the end of its six-day visit — a final check…

Ethiopia’s Red Sea Gambit: Ambition, Anxiety and a Region on Edge For Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Red Sea is no longer a distant horizon. In a televised interview on September 1, he cast the country’s lack of coastline—lost when Eritrea gained independence three decades ago—not as a historical fact but as a fixable error. “The mistake made 30 years ago will be corrected,” he said, adding that remaining “a prisoner of the land” had become an existential challenge for a nation of more than 120 million. The…

Guinea brush past Somalia in Kampala to keep 2026 World Cup push alive Guinea kept their World Cup dream humming on Friday with a professional 3–0 win over Somalia at Mandela National Stadium in Kampala, a tidy night’s work that moved the Syli National to 10 points and kept them within touching distance of Group G’s frontrunners as Africa’s qualifiers tilt into their decisive stretch. Serhou Guirassy struck early, an own goal midway through the second half doubled the cushion, and a stoppage-time tap-in from Ousmane Camara…

Somalia’s New Envoy to Damascus Signals a Calculated Bet on Arab Re‑engagement Somalia’s appointment of Abiib Muse Farah as ambassador to Syria is more than a personnel change. It’s a deliberate statement about where Mogadishu sees itself in a region tentatively stitching old ties back together. Farah presented his credentials in Damascus this week to Syrian Foreign Minister Assad Hassan al‑Shaybani, stepping into a post that had been nurtured back to life by acting ambassador Dahir Mohamud Muse. The move consolidates a…

AFRICOM says U.S. troops take indirect fire near Kismayo, Somalia; no casualties reported What we know U.S. forces in southern Somalia came under indirect fire near the port city of Kismayo on Friday, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said, reporting no injuries or damage. “U.S. and African partner forces took indirect fire near Kismayo, Somalia today. No U.S. injuries or casualties reported. No reports of damage to the base or Coalition property at this time,” the command said in a brief statement posted on its official X…