Somalia

Ethiopian troops fighting militant Islamist group al-Shabab have withdrawn from a key military base in central Somalia's Hiiraan region, witnesses say. Al-Shabab fighters have entered el-Ali village following the withdrawal, reports say. Ethiopian forces had destroyed the base before abandoning the area, a radio station run...

Somalia is due to hold elections in October and November that are seen as a vital stepping stone in restoring governance and rebuilding a state plagued by war and insurgency for 25 years. Twelve years after the formation of its current transitional federal government, and...

The United Arab Emirates government has joined a long line of Arab and western governments supporting dozens of candidates vying for Somalia’s leadership seat amid fears of delays of the presidential election scheduled to take place on November 30, diplomat sources told Alleastafrica Wednesday. Having...

BY YUSUF HASSAN For Somalia to achieve peace and democracy, state-building must be the new federal government’s cornerstone policy. Somalia was supposed to have a new parliament in August, followed shortly thereafter by parliamentarians voting in a new president on September 10. This imperfect system has...

by Jeff Mwaura, jeff@alleastafrica.com NAIROBI – The United Nations’ Somalia Mission has fired one of the organization’s longest-serving officials over allegations ranging from black market transactions to fraud, sources told Alleastafrica. Amadu Kamara, the director of Mission Support, UNSOM and Director of UNSOA, an office that...

The militants were killed about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Tuesday night, the minister said on Wednesday. The African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) also announced on Wednesday that its troops had killed seven militants of the al-Shabaab group, wounding...

By Harun Maruf WASHINGTON — Armed attackers believed to be members of al-Shabab have attacked a residential housing area in the Kenya town of Mandera near the border with Somalia. Governor of Mandera County Ali Roba confirmed the attack on Twitter. He said six people were...

By Mohamed Adam Quota system says 30 percent of seats in parliament in upcoming elections reserved for women. MOGADISHU, Somalia - The Somali clerics council has called for a quota for the presence of women in the parliament after the upcoming elections, arguing that the provision...

HELSINKI (AP) — Running to become president of a country always comes with challenges — but facing death threats from militants and fearing you may never see your four children again are not the usual hurdles. Despite those enormous obstacles, Fadumo Dayib, 44, plans to...

Somalia’s intelligence chief fired 1,500 intelligence officers including the Mogadishu chief in a new major shakeup of the country’s spy agency which is struggling to contain a deadly insurgency by al-Shabab militants, sources told Alleastafrica Saturday. Gen. Abdullahi Gafow told the officers to abandon their...