Somalia News Archives

An airplane that transported Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed back to the capital Mogadishu was targeted by insurgent mortars on Wednesday, as at least 10 people were killed in attacks, Radio Garowe reports.

MOGADISHU, Somalia a " Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million in ransom for a British sailing couple say boats from other countries are 'looting' Somalia's fish-rich waters.Ahmed Gadaf, who says he's a spokesman for the pirates, says Western fishing vessels 'harass' local fishermen and destroy their nets.

NAIROBI, 29 October 2009 - Flash floods caused by four days of torrential rains have displaced more than 15,000 people in the southwestern town of El-Waq near the Kenyan border and submerged most homes and businesses, say locals.

NAIROBI, Kenya a ' Three masked members of a militant Islamist group in Somalia last week shot and killed a Somali Christian who declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, according to a Christian source in Somalia.

In this undated photo made available by the family, Paul and Rachel Chandler, who went missing when sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania after sending a distress signal on Friday, Oct.

"Today God helped me realise my dream," Mr Dore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud.

Here is a full transcript of what Mr Chandler said from the container ship where he and wife Rachel Chandler are being held hostage: ITV interviewer Angus Walker said: I have a message from Stephen [Collett Mr Chandler's brother-in-law]. Stephen says everyone here is fine we are all thinking of you and just hope you are both well can't wait to ...

MOGADISHU: Somalia's prime minister said yesterday his government would do its utmost to rescue a hijacked British couple but warned that piracy was a 'desperate survival measure' for his people.

Somalia's president escaped an opportunistic attack by Islamic militants Wednesday as deadly fighting erupted in the center of Mogadishu, officials said.

A medical official in Somalia says five people have been killed in fighting after insurgents sent mortars toward the airport as the president was arriving.

A European Union counter-piracy force arrested seven suspected pirates after a French fishing boat was attacked in the Indian Ocean, it said Wednesday.

"This includes borders and the Bujumbura international airport," he told reporters late on Monday, urging the population to be vigilant and report suspicious people.

Masked gunmen robbed a Somali money-wiring company near the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, independent sources tell Garowe Online.

By Abdurrahman Warsameh A court in the northeastern Somali region of Puntland on Sunday sentenced 12 men to various prison terms after being convicted of piracy activities off the Somali piracy-infested coast.

SECURITY has been beefed up in Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb with a big Somali population, following threats by the al Shabaab Islamists to attack Kampala.

Islamist militants on Sunday shot to death two men accused by fighters of spying for this east African nation's weak government, a witness and militant member said.

's fragile UN-backed government and Islamist insurgents, but it said yesterday that rebel hardliners did not want to talk.

Calm has returned to the warring neighborhoods in the Somali capital Mogadishu, just after heavy fighting with shelling between the Islamist fighters and the allied troops of AMSOM and government soldiers.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said Somali Islamists will "pay" if they attack Uganda's capital, Kampala.

Somalia - At least three civilians have been killed and two other have been wounded after the transitional government soldiers opened fire to passenger bus traveling around Banadir intersection in Mogadishu, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Wednesday Reports say that the vehicle was mini bus and traveling between Seybiana building and the former ...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says NATO officials will be closely monitoring next month's presidential runoff vote in Afghanistan.

By Emmanuel Goujon African leaders gathered Thursday in the Ugandan capital for a two-day summit aimed at agreeing a treaty on improving the plight of the continent's 17-million refugees and displaced people.

Seventeen civilians were killed and 58 people wounded in Mogadishu in an exchange of mortar and artillery fire between insurgents and African peacekeepers, medical sources said.

Somalia's hard-line al-Shabaab insurgents on Wednesday ordered the closure of two independent radio stations in the central town of Baidoa, the Islamist group said in a statement.

Handout photo of Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian freelance journalist, who is being held for ransom in Somalia.

MOGADISHU, Somalia a " A powerful Islamist group linked to al-Qaida has ordered two radio stations in southwestern Somalia to stop broadcasts indefinitely.Jubba Radio station journalist Mohamed Adawe says al-Shabab delivered a letter Wednesday ordering the station's closure.

Pirates from Somalia who hijacked a Chinese bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean threatened on Tuesday to execute its 25 Chinese crew members if any rescue operation was attempted.

FoxNews : Somalia's hardline Islamist group al Shabaab is cracking down on residents who do not follow a strict form of Sharia Islamic law, now publicly whipping women who wear bras , the Times of India reported.

Aid agencies are warning of a growing humanitarian crisis as thousands continue to flee the fighting in Somalia.

Somaliaa s hardline Muslim extremists have ordered women to shake their breasts to determine if they are wearing "un-Islamic" bras.

Somali pirates were behind the hijacking of a Chinese bulk carrier with 25 Chinese crew seized in the Indian Ocean on Monday, a member of the gang said.

Islamist insurgents say they have shot down an unmanned US spy drone off the coast of southern Somalia.

Hardline al Shabaab rebels have destroyed a mosque and the grave of a revered Sufi Muslim sheikh in central Somalia after shooting in the air to drive away local protesters, residents said Monday.

Officials are warning renewed fighting is likely between two rival clans in breakaway Somaliland, where they are reported to have amassed a large number of weapons and positioned hundreds of militiamen near disputed farmland in Gabiley region.

Somali police have issued a public warning of future assassinations by insurgents, as a lawmaker named Dahir Abdikadir Muse accused government security forces of robbing civilians and government employees, Radio Garowe reports.

Aid from the United Nations World Food Programme reached 1.3 million Somalis in the war-wracked Horn of Africa nation last month, but funding shortfalls prevented the agency from assisting millions more in need, it was announced today.

Somalia's hardline Islamist group al Shabaab has publicly whipped women for wearing bras they say violate Islam by constituting a deception, north Mogadishu residents said on Friday.

At least three civilians were killed in the Somali capital Mogadishu in an exchange of artillery shelling between insurgents and African Union peacekeepers , Radio Garowe reports.

NAIROBI, 15 October 2009 - Khadijo Mahamud, a mother of five, goes to Bakara market every day to look for work, despite the constant shelling.

Two of the journalists have fled to the self-governing State of Puntland, in northern Somalia, while the third reporter fled to neighboring Kenya.

At least 7 people were killed Tuesday in the Somali capital Mogadishu after insurgents attacked African Union peacekeepers , with sources saying AMISOM has unloaded a weapons cache from a ship, Radio Garowe reports.

MOGADISHU: The Islamist insurgency in Somalia may attack targets in neighboring Kenya, an Islamist official said Sunday.

A Delta Force sniper whose heroism during an often-told street battle in Somalia earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor has been honored by a North Carolina military museum.

AFSomalia-Amputations,0136 Somali Islamists carry out amputations on 3 men Eds: APNewsNow.

Hundreds of Kenyan youths have been recruited by Somalia 's beleaguered government to cross the border and fight Islamist rebels, according to authorities in eastern Kenya .

US forces are "likely" to have killed a top al-Qaeda suspect during a military raid in Somalia, US officials say.

The Islamist militant group Hizbul Islam confirmed Friday that a top commander has been killed outside the Somali capital Mogadishu.

By Noor Ali Isiolo, Kenya - Somalia's UN-backed government has recruited more than 170 young Kenyans and former servicemen to help it fight rebels in the failed Horn of Africa state, local leaders in eastern Kenya said.

There is slow but notable progress towards stability in strife-torn Somalia, but international financial support for the transitional government is vital, with speed being the most critical element, the United Nations political chief said today.

Britain called Thursday for U.N. sanctions against the tiny Red Sea nation of Eritrea for supplying weapons to opponents of the transitional government in nearby Somalia in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

Ethnic Somalis who live in a vast territory in northeastern Kenya are being recruited in big numbers, with the military recruitment process reportedly taking place in the Kenyan towns of Wajer, Garissa and Mandera, according to various sources.

Doctors and civil society groups have condemned anonymous threats made against personnel in Madina Hospital, the main health facility in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu.

By Steven Candia THE army freed Somalia's state minister for defence yesterday, a day after he was detained and questioned by security officials in Kampala.

Somalia's two main insurgent groups agreed a truce on Wednesday to end days of clashes between them in the south of the failed Horn of Africa state.

In the past 18 months, 20 young Somali men have disappeared from Minneapolis, Minnesota -- only to re-emerge in Somalia as part of an al-Qaida-backed militia.

At least 5,000 conflict- and drought-displaced Somalis are facing an uncertain future in Bulo Hawo, a town controlled by Al-Shabab on the border with Kenya, locals told IRIN on 6 October.

Ugandan security forces bundled Somalia's state minister for defense into a car and detained him at an undisclosed location in the capital Kampala on Tuesday.

Solving the civil strife and lawlessness which has ravaged Somalia for nearly two decades is an "easy" task that simply requires strong commitments, Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said.

MOGADISHU: Living in twig and cloth shelters after fleeing raging violence in Mogadishu, a severe drought has worsened the misery of thousands of Somalis settled outside the central town of Galkayo.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota: The president of Somalia on Sunday denounced the recruiting of young men from Minnesota's huge Somali community for terrorist activity in his war-ravaged homeland, and said he plans to work with the US government to bring those still alive back home.

NAIROBI: Somali gunmen on Saturday released three foreigners working for Action Against Hunger who were seized from northern Kenya in a cross-border raid in July, a rebel official and the aid organization said.

NAIROBI: Somalia's government will not be able to defeat Al Qaeda-linked militants jeopardising peace because the Horn of Africa nation's forces are too weak and African peacekeepers have a defensive mandate, a minister said.

ST. PAUL - The president of Somalia said Saturday his government is challenged by terrorism - which he called a "foreign idea" - and asked the Somali diaspora to support him as he struggles to create peace in his war-torn country.

Kidnappers on Saturday released three foreign aid workers they had held in Somalia for more than two months, an Islamic militia commander said.

MOGADISHU: Somalia's al Shabaab rebels took full control of the southern port of Kismayu on Friday and sought to play down fears that clashes with their ousted rivals Hizbul Islam might spread to other areas.

A Spanish fishing boat with a crew of 36 has been attacked by a gang of Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, reports say.

Friday, October 2, 2009 Witnesses in Somalia have said at least 20 people have been killed and 50 wounded as two Islamist militant groups battle for control of the port city of Kismayo , located about 300 kilometres from Somalia's capital of Mogadishu .

Islamic militants in Somalia this week killed a woman who led an underground Christian movement in the war-torn country.

Fighting between rival Islamist factions over control of a key Somali port city killed at least five people on Thursday, residents and medical staff said, in the first concrete sign of a major split in the Islamist alliance threatening the fragile U.N.-backed government.