Somalia: Govt Urged To Pass Law Banning ‘Horrendous’ FGM
Somalia has the world’s highest rate of FGM with 98 percent of women between 15 and 49 having been subjected to the potentially deadly ritual Somalia’s next government should ensure a law is passed banning all forms of female genital mutilation (FGM), a U.N. official said on Tuesday, describing the deeply entrenched practice as a […]
Somali Refugees In Kenya Fear Being Repatriated
All of Deck Yusuf Mohamed’s childhood memories begin and end within the confines of the world’s largest refugee camp. Deck, 25, fondly reminisces about playing football with his friends as a child in the dusty grounds at Ifo, one of the camps at Dadaab, unaware that he was even a refugee. When war broke out […]
7 Ways Brexit Will Be Felt Across Africa
The reverberations from Britain’s fateful choice extend far beyond Europe. The U.K. retains deep ties with many African states, and the turbulence is causing anxiety from the Johannesburg stock exchange to the battlefields of Somalia. Where have all the flowers gone? More than a third of the flowers sold in the European Union come from […]
Somalia: Blast On Minibus Kills 20 Near Mogadishu
Somali officials say at least 20 people have been killed in a massive roadside explosion that engulfed a passenger bus on the main highway linking Mogadishu to Afgoye, 30 kilometers west of the capital. A police officer at the scene, Abidkadir Mohamed, told the Reuters News Agency it was a remotely controlled bomb along the […]
Kenya Clamps Down On Journalists Covering War On Al-Shabaab
On a cold January evening, journalist Yassin Juma was walking to his local pharmacy when he was stopped by four men from the Kenyan police. They escorted him back to his house, where he found 14 people ransacking the place in front of his wife and children. “They were looking for electronics, for laptops,” Juma […]
Somalia’s Limited Polls Overshadowed By Clan Rivalries And Al-Shabaab
As Somalia prepares to choose a new government in August, there are concerns that the powerful clans who have long dominated political life in the country may try to manipulate the ballot while al-Shabaab militants also pose a threat, a senior UN official has said. Michael Keating, the head of the UN mission in Somalia, […]
Somalia Hopes For Better Future Despite Attacks
The cool new rooftop pizza joint was buzzing with the hip kids snapping selfies and watching the sun set over Mogadishu when the deep crunch of an explosion made everyone jump. A thick and acrid plume of smoke drifted up from behind one of the nearby high buildings and the crowd started to realise it […]
#WorldPressFreedomDay: Scared. Silenced. Shot. The Life of a Somali Journalist.
Journalists in Somalia are increasingly coming under attack. For many years, the main threat to the media has come from Al-Shabaab, the Islamist armed group that controls large parts of the country. But, as a new report by Human Rights Watch has found, journalists are also now being threatened, harassed, and attacked by Somalia’s government […]
Warsan Shire: The Somali-British Poet Quoted By Beyoncé In Lemonade
She writes of places where many Beyoncé fans rarely go, the portions of London where the faces are black and brown, where men huddle outside shop-front mosques and veiled women are trailed by long chains of children. Warsan Shire, the Somali-British poet whose words are featured in Beyoncé’s new globe-shaking Lemonade album, is a bard […]
Rachael: 
Maryam: 
Fisolami: 