Somalia >>

Contractors say at least two asylum seekers at the centre had declared themselves minors, in breach of camp rules Oliver Laughland ...

s experience reflects broader tensions that affect communities and activists involved in FGM around the world, and her story has now been documented in Dirie's latest book, Safa: The Rescue of the Little Desert Flower , first published in German and due out in translation in the UK later this year. The book also provides compelling evidence of the pressures within particular groups, including those...

Military officials say strike in remote area near Barawe was on suspect with links to al-Qaida and al-Shabaab militant groups The US has carried out a missile strike in Somalia, targeting a suspected militant leader with ties to al-Qaida and al-Shabaab. The strike took place in southern Somalia, according to a US military official, who wished to remain anonymous. The identity of the suspect or whether...

s world in the former British protectorate, an oasis of stability in the region. There is only one woman among the 164 MPs and just three in the cabinet of 40. There is not a single female judge in Somaliland, although in 2012 four deputy attorney generals were appointed for the first time. Abdi, a founding member of the National Women's Network, Nagaad , and country representative of the charity Progressio...

s air strike as Ahmed Mohamed Amey A US missile strike in southern Somalia on Sunday killed a senior commander in the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabaab who had masterminded suicide attacks, two Somali security officials have said. The intelligence sources and a Somali government spokesman named the target as Ahmed Mohamed Amey, a chemicals expert also known as Isku Dhuuq. On Sunday a US official...

s been much criticism of the way the west covers the continent, but are African journalists doing a better job? The Kenyan writer and graduate student at Harvard Law School Nanjala Nyabola recently caused a bit of a stir with her Al Jazeera article asking "Why Do Western Media Get Africa Wrong?" Reading through the piece, which was both interesting and informative, I couldn't help but wonder: Just...

s short life; and when he laughs, it is often about things many people would find tragic. Asked about his experience as an immigrant in Italy, he chuckles. "At last I can't hear the mortars that I used to hear; at least there's that," he says. "But there's a total void, a feeling of total disorientation." Five and a half years ago, on 30 July 2008, Mukhtar arrived at the southernmost point of Italy...

FBI believes gunmen died inside mall, contradicting earlier NYPD report that suggested some may have escaped ...

Kenyan military says dozens of terrorists were killed in its attack on a rebel meeting at a camp in southern Somalia The Kenyan military says it has killed at least 30 Islamist militants in an air strike on a camp in Somalia. A statement said fighter jets had attacked a gathering of rebels at the camp in Garbarahey in the Gedo region iof southern Somalia on Thursday. Major Emmanuel Chirchir said on...

aid dependency merry-go-round' Development funding has historically been tied to the priorities of donor countries. As their priorities shift, so does funding. Aid recipients must deal with the consequences, which can have negative effects on development. Without steady and predictable aid flows many aid-dependent countries fail to achieve their development objectives. In many cases, these are countries...

s peace and security council, the continental equivalent of the UN security council. The aim was to produce a rapidly deployable force and that by 2012 two units, each 2,500 strong, could be operational within just 14 days. This was highly ambitious but badly needed. When, in 2002, the AU replaced the OAU, its badly discredited predecessor, it was specifically mandated to prevent a repetition of the...

eyes and ears of invaders' Islamist militants in Somalia said they carried out the triple bombing on a Mogadishu hotel that killed at least 11 people . Al-Shabaab, which is battling African peacekeepers for control of territory in southern and central Somalia, said its bombers had targeted intelligence officials who were meeting at the Jazeera hotel at the time. "The apostates are the eyes and the...

s president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, whose election by lawmakers last year was hailed by many as a way to end two decades of conflict. The first two bombs came in quick succession and were followed by heavy bursts of gunfire by Somali security forces. The third blast took place about an hour later when a bomb went off inside a car that was being searched by the military. At least one of the first two...

Strikes this year are estimated to have killed up to 271 people, down from 2012 figure of between 505 and 532 Spencer Ackerman ...

s five deadliest countries for the media. They were joined by India and the Philippines, which replaced Mexico and Brazil, although the number of journalists killed in Brazil, five, was the same as last year. Almost 40% of the deaths occurred in conflicts zones, defined as Syria, Somalia, Mali, the Indian province of Chhattisgarh, the Pakistani province of Balochistan and the Russian republic of Dagestan....

Police say device exploded in a crowded minibus as it headed towards the city centre At least four people have been killed in a suspected bomb attack in Nairobi. Police said a device exploded in a crowded minibus as it headed towards the city centre. Benson Kibue, chief of police in Nairobi, said Saturday that the minibus was travelling from the Eastleigh suburb of Nairobi to the city centre when...

s troubled capital, Britain's African intervention of 2000 could serve as a model to help bring peace More than 13 years ago British troops went into Sierra Leone . The intervention of Operation Palliser in May 2000 marked the turning point for the country . Sierra Leone was mired in a miserable conflict fuelled by blood diamonds and fought by child soldiers. Today the UN peacekeepers have long gone,...

tax' payments for access to famine areas Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia established a highly sophisticated system to monitor and squeeze money out of aid agencies before and during the 2011 famine that killed almost 260,000 people , according to a new report. Al-Shabaab set up a humanitarian co-ordination office to demand payments of up to $10,000 to allow access into areas of Somalia devastated by...

s film noir-style investigation starts with the massacre of a police commander's family by a US Joint Special Operations Command (Jsoc) secret unit in Gardez, Afghanistan (initially claimed by the US military to have been honour killings). It then moves through a murderous cruise missile attack in Majala, Yemen, that killed 46 civilians , including 21 children; the drone assassination of the radical...

s extended co-operation, confirmed to the Guardian by his lawyers, helps underscore why US officials consider his bizarre saga a potential template for counter-terrorism that relies less on targeted killings and more on captures, as Barack Obama pledged in May. At least one recent capture operation in Libya appears modeled on Warsame. "Mr Warsame is co-operating with the US government and as is standard...