Coming through passport control is an ordeal, I am followed on the street and hassled by security services. Not all citizens enjoy the same rights If you are British and think that every British citizen enjoys the same rights, my story and those of thousands of others should convince you otherwise. I arrived in Britain in 1999 having fled the civil war in my home country, Somalia. My asylum application...
Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for attack in which at least seven people - six attackers and one soldier - were killed Militants in Somalia have attacked the country's parliament building with a multi-pronged strike involving a car bomb, a suicide bomber and gunmen on foot. At least seven people were killed in the attacks in Mogadishu on Saturday morning, including six attackers and a soldier who...
In an exclusive interview, the former UN secretary general says the world's reluctance to intervene in multiple emergencies is scuppering the search for peace The world has let down the people of Syria, leaving tens of thousands to die as neighbouring nations wage proxy wars instead of working to prevent the bloodshed that has engulfed the country for the past three years, according to the former UN...
FCO's Simon Fraser visits staff in Mogadishu, risking their lives to support a stable and democratic future in Somalia Mogadishu, Somalia inside a small compound within the heavily guarded barriers of Mogadishu International Airport, in a country which has seen over two decades of civil war, lies Britain's newest embassy. We are the first EU state member to have reopened our embassy in Mogadishu, evidence...
Ambassador makes statement day after Nairobi bomb attack Embassy staff say security has increased in compound The United States said on Saturday it was preparing cut staff levels at its Nairobi embassy, because of the mounting threat of attacks in Kenya by Islamist militants. A statement from the US ambassador to Kenya, Robert F Godec, said the embassy was continuously reviewing and updating its security...
5 - 9 May: Catch up with the highs, the lows and the hot topics in development this week Aliko Dangote and Nduka Obaigbena, two Nigerian business leaders who have lead the launch of a safe schools initiative in response to the growing number of attacks on the right to education in Africa . "Africa is not poor. We have the resources and if we manage them well, we can do very well." - @KofiAnnan...
Humanitarian agencies demand urgent action as conflict and drought conditions theaten to leave nearly 3 million hungry Failing rains, severe malnourishment, enduring conflict and poor sanitation have left Somalia facing a humanitarian crisis, with 50,000 children "at death's door" and 2.9 million Somalis at risk of hunger, a coalition of aid agencies has warned. Continue reading... ...
Authorities piece together story of 15-year-old, now hospitalised, who survived five-hour flight in the wheel well of a jet The 15-year-old Somali boy who last Sunday hopped a fence at San Jose International Airport and clambered into a wheel well of a Hawaii-bound jetliner survived the trip , but he has not spoken publicly about the ordeal. A teenage friend in California, who asked to remain anonymous...
Three Guardian journalists - Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Aditya Chakrabortty and Jonathan Freedland - are on the shortlist for the Orwell prize for political writing, as reported here. The other four shortlisted journalists are James Astill of The Economist, AA Gill (Sunday Times), Gideon Rachman (Financial Times), and Mary Riddell (Daily Telegraph). Continue reading... ...
The Impunity Index 2014 published by the Committee to Protect Journalists has named Iraq as the 'worst offender' and included Syria for the first time. See the full list of countries where journalists' murders are most likely to go unpunished Syria has joined a list - compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists - of countries where journalists murders are most likely to go unpunished. The 2014...
The targeted murders of journalists in Syria means that the war-torn country has entered the annual "impunity index" produced by the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ). Syria joins Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, and others on the list of countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free. There was some (slight) good news. Four countries on the index the Philippines,...
By voting in favour of independence for the breakaway territory, the British city has given its 8,000-strong Somaliland community some hope for the region's future, writes Magnus Taylor A council in the British city of Sheffield has voted in support of independence for the Horn of Africas famous non-state state , Somaliland . Somaliland declared independence from the Somali Republic in 1991 following...
UN says two foreign staff were killed in 'callous attack' at airport in Galkayo by man witness says was wearing police uniform Two foreign United Nations workers, including a Briton, have been shot dead at an airport in Galkayo, central Somalia, officials said. A UN source confirmed the pair were international staff members with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Continue reading... ...
Fifteen journalists have been named in the long list for this year's Orwell prize . They include four Guardian writers: foreign correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, economics leader writer Aditya Chakrabortty and the columnists Suzanne Moore and Jonathan Freedland. Two Daily Telegraph columnists, Peter Oborne and Mary Riddell, are listed along with two Financial Times columnists, Matthew Engel and Gideon...
Though sexual discrimination remains widespread in Africa, a study of 34 countries reveals growing support for women's rights There was the Ugandan minister who defended raping girls as "natural", echoing a similar attitude among Nigerian lawmakers . In Somalia, a court sentenced an alleged rape victim to jail without bringing the accused men to court. This spring, Mozambique could pass a...
At least 778 executions were carried out across the world in 2013, according to figures out today from Amnesty International. See how the data breaks down by country Click here to view this image as a larger PDF At least 778 executions were carried out in 2013 - up from at least 682 in 2012 - according to the latest global report from Amnesty International . At least 778 people were executed in 22...
A new exhibition presents contemporary images of battle-ravaged Somali capital alongside rare archive images ...
s authors call on governments and international tribunals to give greater protection to education, and say the UN, regional peacekeepers and all sides in conflicts should refrain from using schools or universities for military purposes. In 24 countries, researchers found that armed forces – both state and non-state – used school buildings as bases, weapons caches, prisons and even torture chambers,...
s information minister, Mustaf Dhuhulow, has urged journalists to take care of their security during the government's campaign against the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab. Dhuhulow made the call while visiting radio broadcaster Ahmed Sa'id Ahmed in a Mogadishu hospital. He was severely wounded in a blast near the presidential palace on Friday (21 February). The minister, who asked journalists to...
s presidential palace with two car bombs in an assault the president called a "media spectacular" by a "dying animal". The president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was unharmed but two government officials were killed, the interior ministry said. The attack underlines a worrying new trend in Mogadishu: despite a period of relative calm following al-Shabaab's withdrawal from Mogadishu in August 2011, militants...