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Qasim Dahir Mohamed, who found his sister Luul’s body after the US drone strike, poses for a photo in Mogadishu, Somalia, on May. 10, 2023. Photo: Omar Faruk for The Intercept

The Americans who got away with murder in Somalia

The world’s most powerful military force mistook a woman and a child for a man in rural Somalia, killed them, and decided their deaths were no one’s fault

Ongoing threat: Although Al-Shabaab was driven out of Mogadishu more than a decade ago and lost control of several towns in recent months, its latest attack on a hotel next to the president’s official residence shows that it remains a danger. Photo: AFP

Al-Shabaab shocks Mogadishu with 20-hour standoff

The militant group is supposed to be on the back foot, but it retains the capacity to execute deadly raids in the capital city

Soldiers patrol in front of a burned truck carrying the inscription “Shabaab Chinja” referring to the jihadist group in Mocimboa da Praia. (Photo by Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP)

Who finances Mozambique’s insurgency?

Informal banking and trade are both a lifeline for local communities and a grey area for terror financing, requiring progressive efforts to develop rather than de-risk

Children in Africa are exposed to violence such as armed conflict, with some children recruited as child soldiers. Photo: Stefanie Glinski/AFP

Towards an Africa in which every child feels secure

Ending violence against children is one of the most important priorities, but it won’t happen without political leadership

How climate insecurity could trigger more conflict in Somalia

The Somali federal government and federal states must integrate climate risks into their security planning. This will enhance their ability to prevent climate-related violence

Abdishakur Mire

Getting the story in Somalia can be a deadly affair for journalists

Abdallae Ahmed Mumin recalls being shot at and threatened in the line of duty. He escaped with his life, but not all his peers were so lucky.

Lessons from Palma attack: What next for the insurgency in Cabo Delgado?

Mozambique is starting to accept it needs more than private military aid to fight the Islamic State insurgency

(John McCann/M&G)

No emergency plan for the ‘Battle of Palma’

South Africa was willing to assist, but the Mozambican government would not allow foreign military forces to get involved

A more complex reality in Cabo Delgado

In the Mozambican province wracked by a violent insurgency, the convenient labelling of those rising up against the predatory elite paints a picture that is far from reality

Amnesty International has released a report that implicates Al-Shabaab, the military and mercenaries in atrocities in Cabo Delgado province. (Photo by ADRIEN BARBIER / AFP)

‘Beheadings’: Aid workers wait for visas as violence intensifies in Mozambique

Amnesty International has released a report that implicates Al-Shabaab, the military and mercenaries in atrocities in Cabo Delgado province

Africa: The only continent where political violence increased in 2020

Militias have increased in numbers and strength, and now outnumber state security forces by four to one

According to data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the overall number of companies that have been liquidated increased 20.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.  (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Debt forgiveness will top the African agenda in 2021

After being praised for their handling of the pandemic, African countries must now confront the economic fallout – even as they grapple with existing political and security…

Making sense of Mozambique’s brutal insurgency

The violence in Cabo Delgado province by al-Shabaab (the youth) can be linked to jihadist influence, the continued marginalisation of Muslim people, and the lure of income from…

Droughts and floods also displace more people, who seek shelter in camps which then serve as recruitment grounds for radical groups like al-Shabaab. (Reuters/Feisal Omar)

Climate change amplifies conflicts, hinders peacebuilding

Researches have looked at how climate change has affected the UN mission in Somalia and how it has strengthened radical groups

Dadaab refugee camp (Reuters)

Kenya plans to close world’s biggest refugee camp Dadaab

Kenya has announced that it plans to close Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, by the end of August

Geolocation of a US air strike area. (Image: Amnesty)

Civilian body count grows as US intensifies its war in Somalia

Shroud of secrecy around civilian deaths masks possible war crimes

Flames and plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky from the parking lot of the compound where several vehicles were on fire, with scores of people fleeing the scene, some of them lightly injured. (Twitter)

Six dead in attack at upmarket Nairobi hotel complex

The attack at DusitD2 is the first in Nairobi in five years, when gunmen stormed the city’s Westgate shopping mall, killing at least 67 people

Concern is growing that Somalia is slowly turning into a desert due to the loss of an estimated 8.2 million trees between 2011 and 2017 alone.

Somalia’s illicit charcoal trade threatens security, the environment and livelihoods

The country is losing trees at an alarming rate to an illicit charcoal trade that partly bankrolls its Islamist insurgency

The fate of all African countries is bound together. We prosper or suffer sustained underdevelopment together. (Feisal Omar/Reuters)

Somalia’s new regime flounders

Infighting has plunged the federal government into disarray and exposed its dysfunction

Last straw: Saida Mousseh Mohammed Hassan

A Trump decree is killing innocent civilians in Somalia

Trump’s new relaxed rules of engagement are killing civilians and breeding the next generation of anti-US fighters.