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Russian officials are eyeing a port of Berbera as a location for their base on the coast of Somaliland, a self-declared state within Somalia on the Gulf of Aden, according to U.S. Defense Department officials. Both China and the United States, with military bases in Djibouti, share the same coastline as the potential Russian port. Russia has also expressed interest in building a naval logistics center in Eritrea, but it is unclear how far along those negotiations are, American officials said, according to NYT. About 1,500 miles south, down the eastern coast of Africa, Russian military transport planes landed last summer in Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique and, according to American officials, deployed about 160 personnel belonging to the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor. The Mozambique government hired the Russian mercenaries to help beleaguered local security forces combat an insurgency that claimed to be affiliated with the Islamic State. At least...

The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, to join H.E President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea and H.E Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, in Asmara, Eritrea for the joint trilateral summit involving the countries of the Horn of Africa. The summit seeks to strengthen the shared interest of regional cooperation between Somalia, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Talks and discussions centered on the development and stability of the three partner states will feature prominently on the summit. The three leaders will use the summit to review and evaluate the effectiveness of existing efforts and measures to boost transparency in the region, discuss strengthening regional stability geared towards countering terrorism and address challenges surrounding regional Cooperation and integration. The delegation of the Federal Government of Somalia led by H.E President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo will share with their Eritrean and Ethiopian counterparts in the summit...

The UN has called for international help to fight huge swarms of desert locusts sweeping through east Africa. A spokesman for the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), called for aid to "avert any threats to food security, livelihoods, malnutrition". Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are all struggling with "unprecedented" and "devastating" swarms of the food-devouring insects, the FAO has said. The agency fears locust numbers could grow 500 times by June. Ethiopia and Somalia have not faced an infestation on this scale for 25 years, while Kenya has not seen a locust threat this size for 70 years, the FAO said earlier this week. South Sudan and Uganda are also at risk if the swarms continue to grow and spread. "The speed of the pests' spread and the size of the infestations are so far beyond the norm that they have stretched the capacities of local and national authorities to the limit," the FAO said. The only option left...

A senior al-Shabaab fighter who traveled from London to join the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab militant group in the Horn of Africa has defected to the Somali government. In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) published Tuesday, Zubair al-Muhajir, who was born in Ivory Coast and joined al-Shabaab in 2006, said he fell out with the group in 2013 when he was arrested and imprisoned for three years by its elite Al-Amniyat unit, which specializes in carrying out assassinations, choreographing and staging suicide attacks and gathering intelligence. “I defected because al-Shabaab, they are lying to the Muslims and to the world. They are claiming to implement the Sharia (Islamic law) which is not true because I know from incidents where they went against the Sharia,” he told VOA. "The reality of their actions is totally against their Sharia – they are killing innocent people and they are lying to the people. “If the people realize that the ideology is wrong with Isla...

More than 40 al-Shabaab terrorists were killed by the Somali National Army (SNA), officials said. Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Taredishe told reporters the terrorists were killed after they attacked a military base in the middle Shabelle region. More than 30 terrorists were wounded during the gunfight between the SNA and the Somali-based al-Qaeda affiliated group, according to Somali military radio. In a statement issued by the Defense Ministry, at least four soldiers were killed and three others were wounded during the attack. Separately, in an operation against the group in the State of Jubaland, eight al-Shabaab fighters were killed, military official Ise Mohamud, told Anadolu Agency. And the group attacked a police station in Afgoye, 30 kilometers southwest of the capital, Mogadishu. Police officer Ibrahim Hassan confirmed the attack to Anadolu Agency but did not provide information about casualties.

 Madaxweyne Siciid Cabdullaahi Deni ayaa bogaadiyey dadkii kasoo shaqeeyay hirgelinta xarumahan oo muhim u ah bulshada gobolka Bari iyo guud ahaan Puntland. Sidoo kale Madaxweynaha ayaa kormeeray Xabsiga weyn ee magaaladda Boosaaso halkaasi oo uu warbixin kaga dhegaystay masuuliyiinta Xabsiga, oo uga warbixiyey xaaladda Xabsiga iyo Maxaabiista ku jirta.

Six Somali government soldiers and 19 militants were killed when Islamist group al-Shabab attacked two bases before dawn Friday, according to officials and residents. Local security officials and residents told VOA Somali that the attackers targeted a Somali government military base in Haji Ali village, near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Addale, in Middle Shabelle region. Somali government forces at the base responded to the attack, sparking a deadly gun battle. Local sources said five government soldiers were killed, including a military commander. The Somali National Army Headquarters, in a statement, put the death toll at four soldiers, with two others injured. The statement said 15 al-Shabab militants were killed and 26 were injured. Al-Shabab said its fighters overran the base and seized weapons and vehicles. Separately, one government soldier and four militants were killed in another al-Shabab attack Friday in the town of Hosingow, Lower Juba region. Residents...

Thirteen people have been confirmed dead at an internally displaced persons camp in Kahda district in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. Goobjoog News, a Somali radio and TV station, reported Tuesday that three of those who died were children. “The three children died of hunger, while 10 others perished as a result of malnutrition. Surviving families are now forced to feed on tree leaves with no support in sight,” it said. Adverse climatic conditions such as drought and floods coupled with conflict in Somalia have always equated to hunger, malnutrition, death of livestock and cash shortages. On Jan. 12, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a humanitarian needs overview report which warned that 4.8 million of Somalia's 15.4 million people are food insecure, 1.2 million are in emergency and crisis and one million children are projected to be malnourished, with 2.6 million people internally displaced persons. Somalia is facing its worst desert lo...

At least three Somali government soldiers were killed and two wounded when a bomb blast targeted a security convoy on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, officials said. The attack took place in the vicinity of Elasha Biyaha in the lower Shabelle region. Abdi Mohamud, a police official in Mogadishu, told Anadolu Agency over the phone that the attack was a roadside bomb blast targeting security forces guarding Turkish nationals working at road construction linking Mogadishu and the town of Afgoye, lower Shabelle. Turkey’s Embassy in Mogadishu confirmed the attack to Anadolu Agency, saying that there were no Turkish casualties in the attack. Al-Shabaab, a Somali-based terror group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack via its radio station and website, saying that it targeted Turkish officials. On Dec. 28, at least 85 people, including two Turkish nationals, were killed and over 150 others wounded in a truck suicide attack in Mogadishu, in...

Somalia Special Forces (Danab) on Monday recaptured a key town in the southern region from al-Shabaab and arrested senior leaders of the local terror group. Ismail Abdimalik Malin, commander of the 16th Brigade, said that Toratorow, a key revenue collection region for al-Shabaab in Lower Shabelle region, was recovered in an operation that also saw the arrest of ten militants. "Our Somalia National Army liberated Toratorow from al-Shabaab without any resistance from the militants. Ten militants were arrested during the operation," Malin told journalists. He vowed to intensify security operations in the region to flush out the al-Qaeda militant group in other areas under their control. It's not the first time the town which is an al-Shabaab stronghold was captured by government forces. Toratorow is located near the US military base in Balidogle Airfield and is an important revenue collection centre in south-central Somalia. The town has changed hands between a...

At least five al-Shabaab terrorists were killed Friday and others wounded after Jubbaland Security Forces raided a base in Lower Juba region located in southern Somalia, according to a government spokesman. al-Qaeda linked Jubbaland State Ministry of Security spokesman Abdinur Ibrahim Hussein said “the operation at Ufow village in Lower Juba region was completed as planned.” He noted five Ak-47 rifles were recovered from the al-Qaeda linked terrorists among other weapons. Adan Abdulkadir, the commander of the first battalion in Jubbaland told the media that the military raid on the makeshift base was to “clear remnants of the militants from their hideouts in the area and ensure the villages are secured.”

A car bomb exploded near a checkpoint in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday, leaving at least three people dead and six others wounded, police said. Witnesses described a plume of thick black smoke over the city and said multiple vehicles were on fire. Buildings were also damaged. Islamist militant group al-Shabab claimed the attack via its Andalus radio station, claiming it had killed several government troops and officials. Police officer Adan Abdullahi told AFP: "Explosives were packed in a vehicle which the security forces think was trying to pass through the checkpoint, but because he could not do that, the suicide bomber detonated it." The blast near the Somali parliament comes 11 days after the city was hit with a car bombing, also initiated by al-Shabab, that killed 81 people. Al-Shabab, which has links to the international al-Qaeda terrorism network, has been expanding its influence in the Horn of Africa in recent years. The December 28 attack wa...

Jihadists from Somalia's Al-Shabaab group on Sunday attacked a military base used by US and Kenyan forces in Kenya's coastal Lamu region, the army spokesman said. The strike on the base known as Camp Simba in Manda Bay is the latest by the group in Kenya since Nairobi sent troops across the border in 2011. Kenya's army spokesman Colonel Paul Njuguna said in a statement that at 5:30am "an attempt was made to breach security at Manda Air Strip." "The attempted breach was successfully repulsed. Four terrorists bodies have so far been found. The airstrip is safe. Arising from the unsuccessful breach a fire broke out affecting some of the fuel tanks located at the airstrip." He said the fire had been brought under control "and standard security procedures are now on-going." Lamu County Commissioner Irungu Macharia also confirmed there had been an attack and said the militants "have been repulsed." "We are not sure if there...

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Mogadishu on Thursday, in a rare show of defiance against al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadist group who have terrorised the country for nearly a decade.   The protests follow the carnage wrought on the Somali capital on the 28th of December when a car bomb exploded at a busy traffic intersection killing around 90 people and injuring dozens of others. The terror group took the unprecedented step of apologising for the attack in the face of huge public anger.  Protests against al-Shabab are uncommon, as many fear that the crowds will be attacked. In the past, Somalis have protested silently instead by wearing red bandanas to symbolise the bloodshed. But after nearly ten years of brutal Islamist insurgency and hundreds of deadly attacks, fear is turning to rage. The demonstration followed a state television broadcast, which showed some of the group’s propaganda in which it expla...

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Mogadishu on Thursday, condemning massive explosion that killed nearly 90 people and wounded more than 140 others. The protest came in response to a call from the city’s mayor for a massive rally to pray for those killed and injured in Saturday’s truck bombing at the Ex-control Afgoye On Dec 28. The militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeting Turkish convoy escorting by Somali soldiers. The deadly bombing left two Turkish nationals dead who were working on a Qatar-funded road project on Mogadishu-Afgoye street. Al-Shabaab offered condolences to the families and friends who lost their loved ones in its attack, which has drawn global condemnations.