Tag: News in English

It’s unusual to see a female in the military in traditionally conservative Somali society where women’s duties are generally at home and limited to family chores. But several determined women are breaking down those barriers and joining the army. Somali army officials report female army recruits have increased following the ouster from the capital in…

The government of Somalia declined to take part in a meeting on refugees. The meeting would be attended by Kenya Government, Somalia and the UN Refugee Agency-UNHCR. The meeting was called off as Somalia turned down to take part in it. The meeting would take place in Nairobi. In a letter from the Ministry of…

Mogadishu – Somali rebel group al-Shabaab was behind the restaurant attack in Djibouti by two suicide bombers over the weekend that killed a Turkish national and wounded several Western soldiers, the militants said on Tuesday. In the first attack of its kind in the tiny Horn-of-Africa state, a man and a woman blew themselves up…

The United Nations, the European Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today issued a joint appeal for a resolution of the political crisis in Somalia, adding that they stand ready to hold to account anyone who poses an obstacle to progress in the Horn of Africa nation. “Ongoing political instability does not serve…

GENEVA (Reuters) – Up to 200,000 children under the age of five could die from severe malnutrition in Somalia by the end of the year unless the United Nations receives emergency funds to stave off mass hunger, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. Only $15 million has been received in the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) $150…

An official from Turkish Airlines (THY) was shot dead when gunmen attacked a car carrying THY officials in Mogadishu on Tuesday. Sadettin Doğan is chief of security for THY in the Somali capital and responsible for the safety of the company’s employees in Mogadishu, a city still beset by unrest and disorder amid sporadic attacks…

WORCESTER — Nineteen-year-old Deqa Abdirahman Aden likes politics, and, after completing her studies in the United States, she said she would like to someday return home to Somaliland to run for public office. However, raised in an African societal and religious culture that drastically limits opportunities for women, she recognizes that career option probably won’t…

On Saturday, suspected suicide bombers struck a restaurant popular with westerners in Djibouti. Three people died and more than a dozen were injured, including European nationals.The attack is the first of its kind. No one has claimed responsibility yet, but it appears to be the beginning of a campaign by al-Qaeda-linked groups to open a…

Convicted Somali pirates, who are serving their sentences in Dutch jails, should no longer qualify for early release if they request asylum, says junior justice minister Fred Teeven. At the moment, the pirates are released after serving two-thirds of their sentence with good behaviour, as is standard in the Netherlands. However, Teeven is planning to…

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed has confirmed resignation of his security minister in the wake of al-Shabab’s deadly attack on the parliament building in the capital Mogadishu, which killed at least 10 people. “I confirm that I have approved the resignation letter from the minister of the security. He has taken great share of…

Kenya’s Somali community is being scapegoated in a counter-terror operation which has seen thousands subjected to arbitrary arrest, harassment, extortion, ill-treatment, forcible relocation and expulsion, Amnesty International said today. In a new Briefing Paper Amnesty International documents a disturbing wave of serious human rights violations suffered by Kenya’s Somali community since a security crackdown –…

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Two Kenyan soldiers transporting food supplies into Somalia were shot dead in a gunfight near the countries’ border, a senior police official said on Monday. Leonard Omolo, police commander in the coastal county of Lamu, said suspected militants ambushed the soldiers late on Sunday as they pushed their car out of mud…

DJIBOUTI (Reuters) – Djibouti’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday that two Somalis are suspected of having carried out a suicide bombing at a restaurant filled with Western military personnel on Saturday that killed three and wounded at least 15. Several members of European Union naval and civilian maritime security missions were among those wounded in…

The European Union Naval Force and the African Union today both condemned an attack the government said involved two Somali suicide bombers in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti that is reported to have killed three people. The attack happened last night when a blast detonated in a busy restaurant frequented by international soldiers….

Mogadishu, May 26 2014: H.E. The President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, today returned to Mogadishu from the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma in South Africa and commented on yesterday’s attack on the parliament building. Speaking on arrival at Aden Abdulle Airport, Mogadishu, The President said, “It is with a heavy heart that I greet you today. Yesterday,…

Blasts target restaurant in downtown Djibouti, killing at least two and injuring 11 others. At least two people have been killed after two blasts struck a busy restaurant in downtown Djibouti, police said. The blasts wounded 11 other people according to the Reuters news agency. “It’s a criminal act. We have two people dead and…

Mogadishu, 24 May 2014 – The Acting President of Somalia, and Speaker of Parliament, H.E. Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawaari, in relation to the terrorist attack outside the Somali Parliament stated, “These enemies will never derail us from our twin goals of achieving peace and progress in Somalia: two brave goals, which though they may fight…

A military base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali National Army in Afmadow district of Middle Jubba region was attacked last night, by insurgents of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab terrorist group. The fierce violent confrontation went on for at least a few hours, after the attack was provoked by the insurgents…

MOGADISHU — Eight Somali soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack on the parliament headquarters in central Mogadishu, a security source said. “The attack took place shortly after a booby-trapped car exploded outside the building,” the source, who asked not to be named, told Anadolu Agency. A security source had earlier put the death…

Militants in Mogadishu have carried out a multipronged complex attack against Somalia’s parliament building involving a car bomb, suicide bomber and gunmen on foot. Al-Shabab has claimed the attacks. The ensuing melee left at least seven people dead, six of the attackers and one soldier who tried to stopped a suicide bomber from entering the…